THE  LIBRARY  OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY  OF 

NORTH  CAROLINA 

AT  CHAPEL  HILL 


PRESENTED  BY 


Harry   G.    Brainard 


THE  LIBRARY  OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY  OF 

NORTH  CAROLINA 

AT  CHAPEL  HILL 


ENDOWED  BY  THE 

T  TRTlSI^ECTIC  AND  philanthropic 
SCHOOL'  SOCIETIES 


JH 
Putnam 


This  book  must  not 
be  taken  from  the 
Library  building. 


'■jo.  471 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2012  with  funding  from 

University  of  North  Carolina  at  Chapel  Hill 


http://archive.org/details/lifeofabrahamlinputn 


A     LOVER     OF     BOOKS     AND    STUDY 


THE  LIFE  OF 

ABRAHAM   LINCOLN 


FOR  YOUNG    PEOPLE 


TOLD    IN  WORDS    OF    ONE    SYLLABLE 


BY 

HARRIET    PUTNAM 

Li^.ScU, 

:TH 

ILLUSTRATED 

?d        ' 

v 

McLOUGHLIN   BROTHERS,   PUBLISHERS 
NEW   YORK 


Copyright,    i90s    by 
McI.OUC.HLIN  BROTHERS 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  I. 


THE    BABE    OF   THE    LOG    CABIN    AND    HIS    KIN 


•  • 


CHAPTER  II. 

THE    NEW    HOME    AND    THE    FIRST   GRIE?     ........  1 3 

CHAPTER  III. 

READING    BY   THE    FIRELIGHT  ;      THE    NEW    MOTH  I-  R  ;      THE    FIRST    DOLLAR         ...  20 

CHAPTER  IV. 

THE    SLAVE    SALE  )      LINCOLN    AS    SO'DIER,     POSTMASTER,     SUKVEYOR,    AND    LAWYER        .  .  J7 

CHAPTER  V. 

LEADER  FOR  FREEDOM  J  LAW  MAKER  .......        39 

CHAPTER  VI. 

LINCOLN    AND    DOUGLAS  .........  53 

CHAPTER  VII. 

THE    PEOPLE    ASK    LINCOLN    TO    BE    THEIR    PRESIDENT        .  ...  ,  .  63 


CONTENTS 
CHAPTER  VIII. 

IN    THE    PRESIDENTIAL    CHAIR  \      THE    CIVIL    WAR    BEGINS.  ..<■..  75 

CHAPTER  IX. 

EARLY  BATTLES  OF  THE  WAR      .........        85 

CHAPTER  X. 

GRANT  WINS  IN  THE  WEST,  AND  FARRAGUT  AT  NEW  ORLEANS       ....        94 

CHAPTER  XI. 

ANTIETAM,    VICKSBURG,    GETTYSBURG  ........  IO5 

CHAPTER  XII. 

CHATTANOOGA,    CHICKAMAUGA,    LOOKOUT    MOUNTAIN.       LINCOLN'S    GETTYSBURG    SPEECH  .  II5 

CHAPTER  XIII. 

GRANT    IN    THE    EAST;      LINCOLN    CHOSEN    FOR    SECOND    TERM       .  .  .  .  .  121 

CHAPTER  XIV. 

RETURN   OF   PEACE;    LINCOLN   SHOT;      HIS    BURIAL    AT    SPRINGFIELD        .  .  ,  I35 


THE    LIFE    OF 


ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 


CHAPTER    I. 

THE    BABE    OF    THE    LOG    CABIN    AND    HIS    KIN. 

NEAR  five  scores  of  years  have  gone  by  since  a 
poor,  plain  babe  was  born  in  a  log  hut  on  the 
banks  of  a  small  stream  known  as  the  "  Big  South 
Fork"  of  No-lin's  Creek.  This  was  in  Ken-tuc-ky  and 
in  what  is  now  La-rue  Coun-ty. 

It  was  Sun-day,  Feb.  12,  1809,  when  this  child  came 
to  bless  the  world. 

The  hut,  not  much  more  than  a  cow-shed,  held  the 
fa-ther  and  moth-er,  whose  names  were  Thom-as  and 
Nan-cy,  and  their  girl  child,  Sa-rah.  These  three  were 
the  first  who  saw  the  strange,  sad  face  of  the  boy,  who, 
when  he  grew  to  be  a  man,  was  so  great  and  good  and 
did  such  grand  deeds  that  all  the  world  gave  most  high 
praise  to  him. 


6  THE  LIFE  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

The  folks  from  whom  the  fa-ther  came  were  first 
known  in  A-mer-i-ca  in  1618.  They  came  from  Eng- 
land at  that  time,  and  made  a  home  at  Hing-ham,  Mass. 
They  bore  a  good  name,  went  straight  to  work,  had 
health,  strength,  thrift,  and  soon  tracts  of  land  for  their 
own.   • 

All  the  lono-  line  of  men  from  whom  this  babe  came 
bore  Bi-ble  names.  The  first  in  this  land  was  Sam-u-el. 
Then  came  two  Mor-de-cais.  Next  was  John,  then 
A-bra-ham,  then  Tho-mas  who  was  the  fa-ther  of  that 
Ken-tuc-ky  boy. 

Though  there  was  room  for  hosts  of  men  in  Mas-sa- 
chu-setts,  yet  scores  left  that  state  and  took  up  land  in 
New  Jer-sey.  Mor-de-cai  Lin-coln,  with  his  son  John, 
went  to  Free-hold,  New  Jer-sey.  They  made  strong 
friends  there  and  had  a  good  home.  When  more  land 
was  want-ed,  Mor-de-cai  left  his  son  in  New  Jer-sey  for 
a  while,  and  went  to  the  Val-ley  of  the  Schuyl-kill  in 
Penn-syl-va-ni-a,  where  he  took  up  a  large  tract  of  land. 
John  Lin-coln,  the  son,  joined  his  fa-ther  lat-er.  Near 
their  farm  was  that  of  George  Boone  who  had  come 
from  Eng-land  with  e-lev-en  chil-dren.  One  son  of 
George  had  great  love  for  the  woods,   the   song  of  the 


THE  LIFE   OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 


birds  and  camp  life.       He  was  Dan-iel  Boone,  the  great 
hun-ter. 

The  men  on  Penn-syl-va-ni-a  farms,  thought  it  best  to 
buy  land  on  the  oth-er  side  of  the  Po-to-mac,  so  the 
Lin-colns  went  in-to  the  val- 
ley of  the  Shen-an-do-ah  and 
took  up  tracts  on  lands  which 
had  been  sur-veyed  by 
George  Wash-ing-ton.  The 
Boones  went  to  North 
Car-o-li-na. 

When  John  Lin-coln's  first 
born  son,  A-bra-ham,  born 
in  Penn-syl-va-ni-a,  came  of 
age,  he  left  his  Vir-gin-ia 
home  and  went  to  see  the 
Boones  in  North  Car-o-li-na. 
Ma-ry  Ship-ley  whom  he  wed. 

Dan-iel  Boone  told  them  that  there  was  a  fine  land 
be-yond  the  moun-tains.  Boone  and  three  more  men 
had  found  a  gate-way  in  the  moun-tains  in  1 748.  They 
named  it  Cum-ber-land  Gap,  in  hon-or  of  the  Duke  of 
Cum-ber-land,  Prime-min-is-ter  to  King  George.     They 


DANIEL     BOOXE. 


Here  he  met  the  sweet 


THE  LIFE  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 


found  rich  soil  on  that  other  side  of  the  moun-tains,  and 
the  haunts  of  the  buf-fa-lo  and  deer.  Boone  got  up  a 
band  of  two  score  and  ten  men  in  1775  and  made  a  set-tle- 
ment  at  a  spot  to  which  he  gave  the  name  of  Boons- 
bor-ough,  in  what  is  now  Ken-tuc-ky. 

When  the  war  of  the  Rev-o-lu-tion  came,  the  In-di-ans 
had  arms  and  shot  which  had  been  giv-en  to  them  by 
the  Brit-ish.  The  red  men  fought  hard  for  the  lands 
where  they  were  wont  to  hunt.  The  white  men  had  to 
build  forts  and  watch  the  foe  at  all  points  when  they 
went  forth  to  clear  or  till  the  ground. 

Still,  more  and  more  folks  went  to  Ken-tuc-ky.  Of 
these,  in  1778,  were  A-bra-ham  Lin-coln  and  his  wife, 
Ma-ry  Ship-ley  Lin-coln.  With  them  were  their  three 
boys,  Mor-de-cai,  Jo-si-ah  and  Thom-as,  the  last  a  babe 
in  the  arms  of  his  moth-er. 

From  their  North  Car-o-li-na  home,  on  the  banks  of 
the  Yad-kin,  this  group  made  a  trip  of  500  miles.  The 
end  of  their  route  was  near  Bear-grass  Fort,  which 
was  not  far  from  what  is  now  the  cit-y  of  Lou-is-ville, 
Ken-tuc-ky. 

A  sad  thing  came  to  the  Lin-colns  in  1784.  A-bra- 
ham  with  his  three  sons  went  out  to  clear  the  land  on 


THE  LIFE  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 


their  farm.  A  squad  of  In-di-ans  was  near.  At  the 
first  shot  from  the  brush  the  good  fa-ther  fell  to  the 
earth  to  breathe  no  more.  The  two  old-er  boys  got 
a-way,  but  Thom-as,  the  third  son,  was  caught  up  by  a 


CABIN    IN   WHICH    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN    WAS    BORN. 


sav-age,  and  would  have  been  tak-en  off  had  not  a  quick 
flash  come  from  the  eld-est  boy's  gun  as  he  fired  from 
the  fort,  tak-ing  aim  at  a  white  or-na-ment  on  the  In- 
dian's breast,  and  kill-ing  him  at  once. 

It  was  the  way  of  those  days  that  the  first  born  son 
should  have  what  his  fa-ther  left.  So  all  went  to  Mor- 
de-cai.  Jo-si-ah  and  Thom-as  had  to  make  their  own 
way  in  the  world. 


10  THE  LIFE  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

Young  Thom-as,  at  ten  years  of  age  was  at  work  on 
land  for  small  pay.  As  he  grew  in  strength  he  took  up 
tools,  put  by  his  coin,  and,  at  last,  could  buy  some  land 
of  his  own.  When  he  was  a  man  grown  he  wed  Nan- 
cy Hanks,  who  made  a  good  and  true  wife  for  him. 
He  built  a  hut  for  her  near  E-liz-a-beth-town.  In 
a  year's  time,  the  first  child,  Sa-rah,  was  born. 

Two  years  went  by,  and  as  there  was  but  small  gain 
and  scarce  food  for  three  there,  the  Lincolns  went  to 
Big  South  Fork,  put  up  a  poor  shack,  a  rude  hut  of  one 
room.  The  floor  was  not  laid,  there  was  no  glass  for  the 
win-dow  and  no  boards  for  the  door.  In  this  poor 
place  A-bra-ham  Lincoln,  II,  first  saw  the  light. 

The  moth-er,  Nan-cy  Hanks,  when  she  came  to  be 
the  wife  of  Thom-as  Lin-coln,  was  a  score  and  three 
years  old.  She  was  tall,  had  dark  hair,  good  looks, 
much  grace,  and  a  kind  heart.  It  is  said  that  at  times  she 
had  a  far  off  look  in  her  eyes  as  if  she  could  see  what 
oth-ers  did  not  see.  She  had  been  at  school  in  her  Vir- 
ginia home,  could  read  and  write,  and  had  great  love 
for  books.  She  knew  much  of  the  Bi-ble  by  heart,  and 
it  made  her  glad  to  tell  her  dear  ones  of  it.  The  brave 
young  wife  did  all  she  could  to  help  in  that  poor  home. 


THE  LIFE  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  11 

The  love  she  had  for  her  babes  kept  joy  in  her  heart. 
Her  boy  was  ver-y  close  to  her.  As  she  looked  in-to 
his  deep  eyes,  she  seemed  to  know  that  child  was  born 
for  grand  deeds.  As  he  learned  to  talk,  his  moth-er 
hid  his  say-ings  in  her  heart,  tell-ing  but  few  friends 
who  were  near  her,  how  she  felt  a-bout  that  son.  But 
she  had  too  much  to  do  to  dream  long.  As  Thom-as 
was  much  from  home  the  young  wife  had  to  leave  her 
babes  on  a  bed  of  leaves,  take  the  gun,  go  out  and  bring 
down  a  deer  or  a  bear,  dress  the  flesh,  and  cook  it  at  the 
fire.  She  used  skins  for  clothes,  shoes,  and  caps.  All 
the  time  it  was  toil,  toil,  but  love  kept  the  work  less 
hard. 

As  the  boy,  A-bra-ham,  grew  in  strength  and  health, 
his  eyes  turned  to  his  moth-er  for  all  that  made  life  dear. 
In  af-ter  years  he  oft-en  said,  "  All  that  I  am  I  owe  to 
my  moth-er." 

There  was  no  door  to  the  Lin-coln  hut,  so  the 
moth-er  hung  up  a  bear  skin  as  a  shield  from  the  cold, 
and  pressed  her  babe  to  her  breast  as  the  chill  winds 
swept  in  be-tween  the  logs. 

At  the  fire  on  the  hearth  the  corn-cake  was  baked  and 
the  ba-con  fried      Game  was  hung  up  in   front  of  the 


12  THE  LIFE  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

fire,  and  turned  from  time  to  time,  that  it  might  all  be 
brown  and  crisp.  When  free  from  toil  the  moth-er 
taught  her  lad  and  lass,  and  the  "  gude-man,"  too,  that 
it  might  make  him  more  than  he  was  to  her,  to  him-self, 
and  to  oth-ers.  The  truths  the  moth-er  gave  out  sank 
deep  in  the  heart  of  her  boy,  and  in  due  time  they  put 
forth  shoots  which  grew  to  a  great  size,  and  were  of  use 
to  the  world. 

Four  years  went  by,  and  then  the  Lin-colns  took  a 
bet-ter  farm  at  Knob  Creek,  built  a  cab-in,  dug  a  well, 
and  cleared  some  land.  The  new  home  was  but  a  short 
way  from  the  patch  on  the  side  of  that  hill  on  No-lin's 
Creek,  but  a  good  farm  might  have  been  made  there  if 
Thom-as  Lin-coln  had  been  a  man  who  would  stay  in 
one  place,  and  work  the  soil  year  in  and  year  out.  He 
had  not  the  pluck  to  keep  a  farm  up  to  the  mark. 

When  A-bra-ham  was  five  years  old  he  oft-en  went 
with  his  folks  three  miles  from  home  to  a  place  called 
"  Lit-tle  Mound."  A  log-house  had  been  built  there, 
and  a  man  found  whose  name  was  Rev.  Da-vid  El-kins, 
and  who  was  glad  to  come  a  long  way  through  the 
woods  to  preach  from  the  Word  of  God. 

The  small  boy  soon   had  a  great  love  for  that    good 


THE  LIFE    OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  13 

man.    The  ways  of  the  child  drew  the  preach-er  to  him 
and  they  were  soon  fast  friends. 

Ere  long  one  came  by  who  said  he  could  teach  all 
the  folks  to  spell  and  read.  A  class  was  made  up,  and, 
strange  to  say,  the  five-year-old  A-bra-ham  stood  at  the 
head  of  it!  His  moth-er  had  taught  him.  She,  al-so, 
had  told  him  to  be  kind  and  good  to  all.  There  were 
sol-diers  on  the  road  from  time  to  time,  go-ing  home 
from  the  war  of  1812.  One  day  the  young  child  saw 
one  near  him  when  he  held  in  his  hand  a  string  of  fish 
he  had  just  caught.     He  gave  all  his  fish  to  the  sol-dier. 


CHAPTER    II. 

THE    NEW    HOME    AND    THE    FIRST    GRIEF. 

When  A-bra-ham  was  sev-en  years  old,  his  fa-ther 
Thom-as  Lin-coln,  found  his  farm  too  much  for  him. 
What  he  liked  best  was  change.  He  said  it  would 
suit  him  to  move  to  the  West,  where  rich  soil  and  more 
game  could  be  found. 

He  thought  he  would  take  what  he  could  of  their 


14  THE  LIFE   OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

poor  goods,  set  off  and  hunt  up  a  home.  So  he  built  a 
frail  craft,  put  his  wares  on  it,  but  soon  got  on  the 
snags  and  lost  most  of  what  he  had.  He  swam  to  the 
shore.  In  a  few  days  the  wa-ters,  which  had  come  up 
as  high  as  the  banks,  went  down,  and  folks  a-long  shore 

helped  him  get  up  a  few  of  his  goods  from  the  bot-tom 
of  the  river.  These  goods  he  put  in-to  a  new  boat,  which 
he  said  he  would  pay  for  as  soon  as  he  could,  and  then 
float-ed  down  the  O-hi-o  to  Thomp-son's  Land-ing. 
Here  he  put  what  he  had  brought  with  him  in-to  a  store- 
house, and  went  off  a  score  of  miles  through  the  woods 
to  Pig-eon  Creek.  He  found  the  soil  all  he  thought  it 
would  be.  He  chose  a  tract  of  land,  and  then  made  a 
long  trip  to  "en-ter  his  claim"  at  Vin-cennes.  The  next 
thing  to  do  was  to  go  back  to  Ken-tuc-ky. 

The  cool  days  of  No-vem-ber  had  come  ere  wife  and 
chil-dren,  with  two  hor-ses  which  a  friend  had  loaned, 
and  what  goods  were  left,  set  out  for  the  far  off  land  of 
In-di-an-a.  When  night  came  they  slept  on  the  ground 
on  beds  made  of  leaves  and  pine  twigs.  They  ate  the 
game  the  rifles  brought  down,  cooking  it  by  the  camp 
fire.  From  time  to  time  they  had  to  ford  or  swim  streams. 
They  were  glad  that  no  rain  fell  in  all  their  long  route. 


THE  LIFE    OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 


ON    THE    WAY    TO    INDIANA. 


Sa-rah  and  A-bra-ham  thought  it  was  nice  to  spend 
weeks  in  the  free,  wild  life  of  the  woods.  A-corns  and 
wal-nuts  they  found,  and  fish  came  up  when  they  put 


16  THE  LIFE  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

a  fat  worm  on  their  hooks.  They  could  wade  and  swim 
in  the  cool  brooks  and  gather  huge  piles  of  dried  leaves 
for  their  sound  sleep  at  night. 

But  at  last  they  came  to  the  banks  of  one  stream  from 
which  they  could  look  far  off  to  the  land  where  they 
were  to  make  their  new  home.  All  was  still  there  save 
the  sound  of  the  birds  and  small  game.  Right  in-to  the 
heart  of  the  dense  woods  they  went  on  a  piece  of  tim- 
ber-land a  mile  and  a  half  east  of  what  is  now  Gen-try- 
ville,  Spen-cer  Co.  This  was  A-bra-ham  Lin-coln's 
third  home.  Here  his  fa-ther  built  a  log  "  half-face," 
half  a  score  and  four  feet  square.  It  had  no  win-dows 
and  no  chim-ney.  For  more  than  twelve  months  the 
Lin-colns  staid  in  this  camp.  They  got  a  bit  of  corn 
from  a  patch,  and  ground  it  in-to  meal  at  a  hand  grist- 
mill, sev-en  mijes  off,  and  this  was  their  chief  food. 
There  was,  of  course,  game,  fish,  and  wild  fruits. 

Their  beds  were  still  heaps  of  dry  leaves.  The  lad 
slept  in  a  small  loft  at  one  end  of  the  cab-in  to  which  he 
went  up  by  means  of  pegs  in  the  wall.  A-bra-ham  was 
then  in  his  eighth  year,  tall  for  his  age,  and  clad  in  a 
home-spun  garb  or  part  skins  of  beasts.  The  cap  was 
made  of  the  skin  of  a  coon  with  the  tail  on.     The  child 


- 


- 


LITTLE     ABE'S     GIFT     TO     A     SOLDIER 


THE  LIFE   OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  17 

did  much  work.  He  knew  the  use  of  the  axe,  the 
wedge,  and  the  maul,  and  with  these  he  found  out  how 
to  split  rails  from  logs  drawn  out  of  the  woods.  To  clear 
the  land  so  that  they  could  plant  corn  to  feed  the  fam-i- 
ly,  and  hew  tim-ber  to  build  the  new  house  was  work 
that  gave  fa-ther  and  son  much  to  do.  At  last  Sa-rah 
and  A-bra-ham  felt  that  they  had  a  house  to  be  proud 
of,  though  it  was  not  much  bet-ter  than  the  one  they  had 
left.  Its  floor  had  not  been  laid,  and  there  were  no 
boards  of  which  to  make  the  door  when  they  moved  in. 
Some  friends  had  come  to  see  them,  and  as  there  would 
be  more  room  for  them  in  the  new  house  they  went  to 
live  there.  It  was  a  glad  day  when  Thom-as  Spar- row, 
whose  wife  was  Mr.  Lin-coln's  sis-ter,  and  Den-nis 
Hanks,  her  nephew,  came. 

The  brief  joy  of  the  Lin-colns  was  soon  lost  in  a 
great  grief.  An  ill-ness  came  to  that  place  and  man-y 
folks  died.  Mrs.  Lin-coln  fell  sick.  She  knew  that  she 
must  leave  her  dear  ones.  Her  work  was  at  an  end. 
As  her  son  stood  at  her  bed  side  she  said,  "  A-bra-ham, 
I  am  going  a-way  from  you.  I  shall  not  come  back.  I 
know  that  you  will  be  a  good  boy,  that  you  will  be  kind 
to  Sa-rah  and  to  your  fa-ther.       I  want  you  to  live  as  I 


18 


THE  LIFE    OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

have  taught  you,  and  to  love 
your  Heav-en-ly  Fa-ther." 

The  grief  that  came  then  to 
A-bra-ham  Lin-coln  made  its 
mark  on  him,  a  stamp  that 
went  with  him  through  life. 
When  that  moth-er  died, 
that  dear  moth-er,  to  whom  he 
f|L  gave  so  much  love,  the  boy 
felt  that  he  did  not  want  to 
live  an-y  long-er.  He  thought 
his  heart  would  break.  He 
staid  days  by  his  moth-er's 
grave.  He  could  not  eat.  He 
could  not  sleep.  Soon  Mr. 
and  Mrs.  Spar-row,  the  guests, 
died.  The  strange  ill-ness 
come  to  them.  It  came,  also, 
even  to  the  beasts  of  the  fields  in  that  land.  Those 
were  sad  days. 

Nan-cy  Hanks  Lin-coln  was  33  years  old  when  she 
died.  Her  hus-band,  Thom-as,  made  a  cof-fin  for  her  of 
green  lum-ber  cut  with  a  whip-saw,  and  she,  with  oth-ers, 
was  bur-ied  in  a  small  "clear-ing"  made  in   the   woods. 


GOING    IP    TO    THE    LOFT 


THE  LIFE   OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  19 

There  were  no  pray-ers  or  hymns.  It  was  great  grief 
to  young  A-bra-ham  that  the  good  man  of  God  who 
spoke  in  the  old  home  was  not  there  to  say  some  words 
at  that  time.  It  was  then  that  the  ten-year  old  child 
wrote  his  first  let-ter.  It  was  hard  work,  for  he  had  had 
small  chance  to  learn  that  art.  But  his  love  for  his 
moth-er  led  his  hand  so  that  he  put  down  the  words  on 
pa-per,  and  a  friend  took  them  five  scores  of  miles  off. 
Good  Par-son  Elkins  took  the  poor  note  sent  from  the 
boy  he  loved,  and,  with  his  heart  full  of  pit-y  for  the 
great  grief  which  had  come  to  his  old  friends,  and  be- 
cause of  his  deep  re-gard  for  the  no-ble  wom-an  who  had 
gone  to  her  rest,  he  made  the  long  jour-ney,  though 
weeks  passed  ere  he  could  stand  by  that  grave  and  say 
the  words  A-bra-ham  longed  to  hear. 


20  THE  LIFE   OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLA 


CHAPTER    III. 

READING    BY    THE    FIRELIGHT  ;    THE    NEW    MOTHER  ; 
THE    FIRST    DOLLAR. 

With  moth-er  gone,  Sa-rah  Lin-coln  must  keep  the 
house,  do  the  work,  sew  and  cook  for  fa-ther  and 
broth-er.  She  was  1 1  years  old.  The  boy  did  his  part 
but  though  he  kept  a  bright  fire  on  the  hearth,  it  was 
still  a  sad  home  when  moth-er  was  not  there. 

Books  came  to  give  a  bit  of  cheer.  An  a-rith-me-tic 
was  found  in  some  way  and  also  a  co-py  of  ^E-sop's 
Fa-bles.  For  a  slate  a  shov-el  was  used.  For  a  pen-cil 
a  charred  stick  did  the  work. 

A  year  went  by,  and  one  day  Thom-as  Lin-coln  left 
home.  He  soon  came  back  and  brought  a  new  wife 
with  him.  She  was  Sa-rah  Bush  John-ston,  an  old 
friend  of  E-liz-a-beth-town  days.  She  had  three  chil-dren 
— John,  Sa-rah  and  Ma-til-da.  A  kind  man  took  them 
and  their  goods  in  a  four-horse  cart  way  to  In-di-an-a. 

A  great  change  then  came  to  the  Lin-coln  house. 
There  were  three  bright  girls  and  three  boys  who  made  a 
deal  of  noise.  A  door  was  hung,  a  floor  laid,  a  win-dow 


THE  LIFE  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  21 

put  in.  There  were  new  chairs,  a  bu-reau,  feath-er-beds, 
new  clothes,  neat  ways,  good  food,  lov-ing  care,  and 
much  to  show  A-bra-ham  that  there  was  still  some  hope 
in  the  world. 

The  new  moth-er  was  a  kind  wom-an,  and  at  once 
took  the  sad  boy  to  her  heart.  All  his  life  from  that 
time,  he  gave  praise  to  this  friend  in  need. 

A  chance  came  then  for  a  brief  time  at  school,  and 
this  was  "  made  the  most  of."  Folks  said  the  boy  "  grew 
like  a  weed."  When  he  was  twelve  it  was  said  one 
"  could  al-most  see  him  grow."  At  half  a  score  and  five 
years  old  he  was  six  feet  and  four  in-ches  high  .  He 
was  well,  strong,  and  kind.  He  had  to  work  hard.  He 
did  most  of  the  work  his  fa-ther  should  have  done.  But 
in  the  midst  of  it  all  he  found  time  to  read.  He  kept 
a  scrap-book,  too,  and  put  in  it  verse,  prose,  bits  from 
his-to-ry,  "  sums,"  and  all  print  and  writ-ing  he  wished 
to  keep.  At  night  he  would  lie  flat  on  the  floor  and 
read  and  "  figure"  by  fire  light. 

One  day  some  one  told  A-bra-ham  that  Mr.  Craw- 
ford, a  man  whose  home  was  miles  off,  had  a  book  he 
ought  to  read.  This  was  a  great  book  in  those  days. 
It  was  Weems  "  Life  of  Wash-ing-ton."   The  youth  set 


22 


THE  LIFE    OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 


off  through  the  woods  to  ask  the  loan   of  it.       He    got 
the  book  and  read  it  with  joy.       At  night  he  put  it  in 

what  he  thought  was  a 
safe  place  be-tween  the 
logs,  but  rain  came  in 
and  wet  it,  so  he  went 
straight  to  Craw-ford, 
told  the  tale,  and  worked 
three  days  at  "  pull-ing 
fod-der"  to  pay  for  the 
harm  which  had  come  to 
the  book. 

It  was  the  way 
in  those  times  in 
that  place  for  a 
youth  to  work 
till  he  was  a 
score  and  one 
years  old  for  his 
fa-ther.  This  young  Lin-coln  did,  work-ing  out  where 
he  would  build  fires,  chop  wood,  "  tote  "  water,  tend  ba- 
bies, do  all  sorts  of  chores,  mow,  reap,  sow,  plough, 
split  rails,  and  then  give  what  he  earned  to  his  fa-ther. 


THE    YOUNG    RAIL-SPLITTER. 


THE  LIFE    OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  23 

Though  work  filled  the  days,  much  of  the  nights  were 
giv-en  to  books.  In  rough  garb,  deer  skin  shoes,  with  a 
blaze  of  pine  knots  on  the  hearth,  A-bra-ham  read,  read, 
fill-ing  his  mind  with  things  that  were  a  help  to  him  all 
his  life.  He  knew  how  to  talk  and  tell  tales,  and  folks 
liked  to  hear  him.  He  led  in  all  out  of  door  sports. 
He  was  kind  to  those  not  so  strong  as  he  was.  All 
were  his  friends. 

The  first  mon-ey  that  he  thought  he  might  call  his  own 
he  earned  with  a  boat  he  had  made.  It  seems  that  one 
day  as  he  stood  look-ing  at  it  and  think-ing  if  he  could 
do  an-y  thing  to  im-prove  it,  two  men  drove  down  to  the 
shore  with  trunks.  They  took  a  glance  at  some  boats 
they  found  there,  chose  Lin-coln's  boat,  and  asked  him 
if  he  would  take  men  and  trunks  out  to  the  steam-er. 
He  said  he  would.  So  he  got  the  trunks  on  the  flat 
boat,  the  men  sat  down  on  them,  and  he  sculled  out  to 
the  steam-er. 

The  men  got  on  board  the  steam-er,  and  their  young 
boat-man  lift-ed  the  hea-vy  trunks  to  her  deck.  Steam 
was  put  on,  and  in  an  in-stant  the  craft  would  be  gone. 
Then  the  youth  sang  out  that  his  pas-sen-gers  had  not 
yet  paid  him. 


24  THE  LIFE   OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

Each  man  then  took  from  his  pock-et  a  sil-vcr  half- 
dol-lar  and  threw  it  on  the  floor  of  the  flat-boat.  Great 
was  the  sur-prise  of  young  Lin-coln  to  think  so  much 
mon-ey  was  his  for  so  lit-tle  work.  He  had  thought 
"two  or  three  bits"  would  ,be  a-bout  right.  The 
coin  which  came  to  him  then,  when  off  du-ty  from  his 
fa-ther's  toil,  the  youth  thought  might  be  his  own.  It 
made  him  feel  like  a  man,  and  the  world  then  was  more 
bright  for  him. 

A  man  who  kept  a  store  thought  he  would  send  a 
"car-go  load,"  ba-con,  corn  meal,  and  oth-er  goods,  down 
to  New  Or-leans  in  a  large  flat-boat.  As  A-bra-ham 
was  at  all  times  safe  and  sure,  the  own-er,  Mr.  Gen-try, 
asked  him  to  go  with  his  son  and  help  a-long.  They  had  to 
trade  on  the  "  su-gar-coast,"  and  one  night  sev-en  black 
men  tried  to  kill  and  rob  them.  Though  the  young 
sai-lors  got  some  blows,  they  at  last  drove  off  the  ne- 
groes, "  cut  cable,"  "  weighed  anchor,"  and  left.  They 
went  past  Nat-chez,  an  old  town  set- tied  by  the  French 
when  they  took  the  tract  which  is  now  Lou-is-i-an-a. 
The  hou-ses  were  of  a  strange  form  to  the  boat-men. 
The  words  they  heard  were  in  a  tongue  they  did  not 
know.    They  passed  large  plan-ta-tions,  and  saw  groups 


THE  LIFE  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 


25 


of  huts  built  for  the  slaves.  At  New  Or-leans,  in  the 
old  part  of  the  town  where  they  staid,  all  things  were 
so  odd  that  it  seemed  as  if  they  were  in  a  land  be-yond 
the  great  sea.     When  they  had  left  their  car-go  in  its 


LINCOLN  S    HOME    IN    GENTRYVILLE. 


right  place,  they  went  back  to  In-di-an-a,  and  Mr.  Gen- 
try thought  they  had  done  well. 

A-bra-ham  had  more  to  think  of  when  he  came  home. 
He  had  seen  so  much  on  his  trip  that  the  world  was 
not  quite  the  same  to  him.  Scores  of  flat  boats  were 
moored  at  lev-ees,  steam-boats  went  and  came,  big  ships 


26  THE  LIFE   OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

were  at  an-chor  in  the  riv-er.  Men  were  there  who 
sailed  far  o-ver  the  seas  in  search  of  gold,  rich  goods, 
sights  of  places,  tribes  and  climes  to  which  Lin-coln 
had  not  giv-en  much  thought.  If  oth-er  men  went  out 
in-to  the  world,  why  might  he  not  go?  Why  stay  in 
this  dull  place  and  toil  for  naught?  He  had  come  to  an 
age  in  which  there  was  un-rest.  His  fa-ther's  wish  was 
that  he  should  push  a  plane  and  use  a  saw  all  his  days. 
This  sort  of  work  did  not  suit  him.  Why  not  strike 
out?  Then  the  thought  came  to  him  that  his  time  was 
not  yet  his  own.  His  moth-er's  words  spoke  to  him  as 
they  did  when  he  was  a  small  boy  at  her  bed-side  for 
the  last  time ;     "  Be  kind  to  your  fa-ther." 

So  A-bra-ham  went  back  to  Pig-eon  Creek  to  work 
and  bide  his  time. 


THE  LIFE  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  27 


CHAPTER    IV. 

THE    SLAVE    SALE.       LINCOLN    AS    SOLDIER,     POSTMASTER, 
SURVEYOR,    AND    LAWYER. 

One  day  a  let-ter  came  to  Thom-as  Lin-coln.  It  bore 
the  post-mark  of  De-ca-tur,  111.  It  said  that  Il-li-nois 
was  a  grand  state :  "  The  soil  is  rich  and  there  are  trees 
of  oak,  gum,  elm,  and  more  sorts,  while  creeks  and  riv- 
ers are  plen-ty."  It  al-so  told  that  "scores  of  men  had 
come  there  from  Ken-tuc-ky  and  oth-er  states,  and  that 
they  would  all  soon  get  rich  there." 

To  Thom-as  Lin-coln  this  was  good  news.  He  was 
glad  of  a  chance  to  make  an  oth-er  home.  He 
knew,  too,  that  the  same  sick-ness  which  took  his  first 
wife  from  him  had  come  back,  and  that  he  must  make 
a  quick  move  if  he  would  save  those  who  were  left.  This 
was  in  March,  1830,  when  A-bra-ham  was  a  score  and 
one  years  old.  He  made  up  his  mind  to  see  his  folks 
to  their  new  home  since  go  they  would. 

Then  came  an  auc-tion,  or,  as  they  call-ed  it,  a  "van- 
doo."  The  corn  was  sold  ;  the  farm,  hogs,  house  goods, 
all  went  to  those  folks  who  would  give  the  most  for  them. 


28  THE  LIFE   OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

Four  ox-en  drew  a  big  cart  which  held  half  a  score  and 
three  per-sons,  the  Hanks,  the  Halls,  and  Lin-colns. 
They  had  to  push  on  through  mud,  and  cross  streams 
high  from  fresh-ets.  A-bra-ham  held  the  "  gad  "  and 
kept  the  beasts  at  their  task.  With  him  the  young  man 
took  a  small  stock  of  thread,  pins,  and  small  wares  which 
he  sold  on  the  way.  When  half  a  score  and  five  days 
had  gone  by  the  trip  came  to  an  end.  The  spot  for  a 
home  was  found  when  all  were  safe  in  Il-li-nois  and  it 
was  on  the  north  fork  of  the  San-ga-mon  Riv-er,  ten 
miles  west  of  the  town  of  De-ca-tur. 

The  young  men  went  to  work  and  made  clear  half  a 
score  and  five  a-cres  of  land  and  split  the  rails  with 
which  to  fence  it.  There  was  no  one  who  could  swing 
an  axe  like  A-bra-ham,  not  one  in  the  whole  West.  He 
could  now  "  have  his  own  time "  for  his  2 1  years  of 
work  for  his  fa-ther  were  at  an  end.  The  law  said  he 
was  free.  Though  he  need  not  now  give  all  that  he 
won  by  toil  to  his  folks,  still  he  did  not  let  them  want. 
To  the  end  of  his  life  he  gave  help  to  his  kin,  though 
he  was  far  from  rich. 

When  Spring  had  gone  by,  and   the  warm  days  of 
1830  had  come.  A-bra-ham  Lin-coln  left  home  and  set 


THE  LIFE   OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  29 

off  to  get  a  job  in  that  new  land.  He  saw  new  farms 
with  no  fen-ces.  He  was  sure  that  his  axe  could  cut 
up  logs  and  fell  trees.  He  was  in  need  of  clothes.  So 
he  split  400  rails  for  each  yard  of  "  blue  jeans"  to  make 
him  a  pair  of  trou-sers.  The  name  of  "  rail-split-ter," 
came  to  him.  He  knew  that  he  could  do  this  work  well. 
All  he  met  would  at  once  like  him.  It  was  the  same 
way  in  the  new  state  as  it  had  been  in  the  last. 

There- was  a  man  whose  name  was  Of-futt.  He  saw 
what  young  Lin-coln  was.  He  knew  he  could  trust  him 
to  do  all  things.  Mr.  Of-futt  said  he  must  help  sail  a 
flat-boat  down  the  Mis-sis-sip-pi  riv-er  to  New  Or-leans. 
He  said  he  would  give  the  new  hand  fif-ty  cents  a  day. 
Poor  A-bra-ham  thought  this  a  large  sum.  Of-futt  said 
too,  that  he  would  give  a  third  share  in  six-ty  dol-lars  to 
each  of  his  three  boat-men  at  the  end  of  the  trip.  At  a 
saw-mill  near  San-ga-mon-town  the  flat-boat  was  built. 
Young  Lin-coln  worked  on  the  boat,  and  was  cook  too, 
for  the  men. 

At  last  they  were  off  with  their  load  of  pork,  live 
hogs,  and  corn.  When  the  flat-boat  ran  a-ground  at 
New  Sa-lem,  and  there  was  great  risk  that  it  would  be 
a  wreck,    Lin-coln   found  a  way   to   get   it   off.      Folks 


30 


THE  LIFE  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 


stood  on  the  banks  and  cheered  at  the  wise  plan  of  the 
bright  boat-man. 


THE    FLAT-BOAT    AND    ITS   CREW    ON    THE    WAY    TO    NEW    ORLEANS. 

When  first  in  New  Or-leans,  though  Lin-coln  had 
seen  slaves,  he  had  not  known  what  a  slave  sale  was 
like.     This  *ime   he   saw   one   and  it  made  him  sick. 


THE  LIFE   OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  31 

Tears  stood  in  his  eyes.  He  turned  from  it  and  said  to 
those  with  him,  "  Come  a-way,  boys !  If  I  ev-er  get  a 
chance,  some  day,  to  hit  that  thing,"  (here  he  flung  his 
long  arms  to-ward  that  block),  "  I'll  hit  it  hard  ! " 

The  boat-men  made  their  way  home,  while  Of-futt 
staid  in  St.  Lou-is  to  buy  goods  for  a  new  store  that  he 
was  to  start  in  New  Sa-lem.  First  A-bra-ham  went  to 
see  his  fa-ther  and  help  him  put  up  a  house  of  hewn 
logs,  the  best  he  had  ev-er  had. 

When  Of-futt's  goods  came  A-bra-ham  Lin-coln  took 
his  place  as  clerk.  The  folks  who  came  to  buy  soon 
found  out  that  there  was  one  in  that  store  who  would 
not  cheat.  The  coins  at  that  time  were  Eng-lish  or 
Span-ish.  The  clerk  was  ex-act  in  fig-ures,  but  if  a 
chance  frac-tion  went  wrong  he  would  ride  miles  to 
make  it  right. 

There  were  rough  men  and  boys  near  that  store. 
Lin-coln  would  not  let  them  say  or  do  things  that  were 
low  and  bad.  The  tim^  came  when  he  had  to  whip 
some  of  them.  He  taught  them  a  les-son.  His  great 
strength  was  his  own  and  his  friends'  pride. 

Days  there  were  when  small  trade  came  to  the  store. 
Then    the   young  clerk   read.       One  thing  he  felt  he 


32 


JHE  LIFE   OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 


LINCOLN    AS    CLERK    IN    OIi"UTT  S    STORE. 


must  have.  That  was  a  gram-mar.  He  had  made  up 
his  mind  that  since  he  could  talk  he  would  learn  to  use 
the  right  words.  He  took  a  walk  of  some  miles  to  get 
a  loan  of  "  Kirk-ham's  Gram-mar."       He  had  no  one  to 


itaanftk 


EARNING     THE     FIRST     DOLLAR. 


THE  LIFE  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 


teach  him,  but  he  gave  his  mind  to  the  work  and  did 
well.  Each  book  of  which  he  heard  in  New  Sa-lem, 
he  asked  that  he  might  have  for  a  short  time.  He 
found  out  all  that  the  books  taught.  Once,  deep  down 
in  a  box  of  trash,  he  found  two  old  law  books.  He  was 
glad  then,  and  said  he  would  not  leave  them  till  he  got 
the  "juice"  from  them.  Folks  in  the  store  thought  it 
strange  that  the  young  clerk  could  like  those  "dry 
lines."  They  soon  said  that  A-bra-ham  Lin-coln  had 
long  legs,  long  arms,  and  a  long  head,  too.  They  felt 
that  he  knew  more  than  "an-y  ten  men  in  the  set-tle- 
ment,"  and  that  he  had  "ground  it  out  a-lone."  He 
read  the  news-pa-pers  a-loud  to  scores  of  folks  who  had 
a  wish  to  know  what  went  on  in  the  land  and  could  not 
read  for  them-selves.  He  read  and  spoke  on  the 
themes  of  the  day,  and  at  last,  his  friends  said  that  he 
ought  to  help  make  the  state  laws,  since  he  knew  so 
much,  and  they  felt  that  he  would  be  sure  to  plan  so 
that  the  poor  as  well  as  the  rich  should  have  a  chance. 
So  in  March,  1832,  it  was  known  that  A-bra-ham's 
name  was  brought  up  as  a  "  can-di-date  "  for  a  post  in 
the  Il-li-nois  State  Leg-is-la-ture.  Ere  the  time  for  ejec- 
tion came,  that  part  of  the  land  found  men  must  be  sent 


34  THE  LIFE   OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

to  fight  the  In-di-ans  who  were  on  the  war-path.  The 
great  chief,  Black  Hawk,  sought  to  keep  the  red  men's 
lands  from  the  white  folks,  but  at  last  he  had  to  give 
up,  though  he  did  all  he  could  to  help  his  own  blood. 
He  was  brave  and  true  to  his  own. 

Young  men  of  San-ga-mon  went  out  to  fight,  with 
A-bra-ham  Lin-coln  as  cap-tain.  They  were  not  much 
more  than  an  armed  mob,  poor  at  drill,  and  with  not 
much  will  to  mind  or-ders  or  live  up  to  camp  rules. 
Their  cap-tain  had  hard  work  to  gov-ern  them,  for  when 
he  gave  a  com-mand  they  were  as  apt  to  jeer  at  it  as  to 
mind  it  But  in  time  they  learned  that  he  meant  what 
he  said,  and  that  while  it  was  not  his  way  to  be  too 
strict  a-bout  small  things,  he  would  not  let  them  do  a 
grave  wrong. 

One  day  a  poor  old  In-di-an  strayed  in-to  the  camp. 
He  had  a  pass  from  Gen-er-al  Cass  which  said  that  he 
was  a  friend  of  the  whites,  but  the  men  had  come  out 
to  kill  red-skins,  and  not  hav-ing  yet  had  a  chance  to  do 
so,  thought  they  must  seize  this  one.  They  said  the 
pass  was  forged,  and  that  the  old  man  was  a  spy,  and 
should  be  put  to  death. 

But  Cap-tain  Lin-coln  heard  the  noise,   and   came   to 


THE  LIFE  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 


35 


the  aid  of  the  old  man  just  in  time.  He  put  him-self 
be-tween  his  men  and  their  vic-tim,  and  told  them  they 
must  not  do   this  thing.     They  were  so  full   of  wrath 


CAPTAIN    LINCOLN    PROTECTING    THE    OLD    INDIAN. 


that  Lin-coln's  own  life  was  at  risk  for  a  while,   but  his 
brave  look  and  firm  words  at  length  brought  them   to 
terms,  and  the  old  sav-age  was  let  go  without  harm. 
The  time  for  which  the  men  had  en-list-ed  was  soon 


36  THE  LIFE   OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

at  an  end,  and  all  but  two  of  them  went  home.  Lin- 
coln was  one  of  those  who  took  a  place  as  a  pri-vate  in 
an-oth-er  com-pa-ny,  and  he  did  not  leave  till  the  end  of 
the  war. 

A-bra-ham  Lin-coln,  when  he  had  got  home  from 
the  war,  sent  out  word  that  he  would  speak  where  there 
was  need  of  him  as  "  Whig,"  for  he  was  a  "  Clay  man 
through  and  through."  He  made  his  first  "  po-lit-i-cal " 
speech  at  a  small  place  a  few  miles  west  of  Spring-field. 
It  was  a  short  one.  While  what  he  said  was  to  the  point 
and  no  fault  could  be  found  with  it,  still,  his  strange 
looks  and  queer  clothes  made  those  who  were  not  on 
his  side  laugh  and  make  fun  of  his  long  legs  and  arms, 
and  say  he  would  not  be  the  choice  of  the  most  for  an-y 
post.  Still,  he  made  more  friends  than  foes,  and  though 
he  did  not,  at  that  time,  get  a  chance  to  go  to  the  Leg-is- 
la-ture,  he  had  but  to  wait  a  while  when  bet-ter  luck 
came  to  him. 

In  the  mean  time  Mr.  Lin-coln  knew  that  he  must 
find  work  of  some  kind,  for  he  had  no  funds  on  which 
he  could  live.  He  then  kept  a  store  with  a  man,  but 
the  gain  was  small  and  at  last  they  had  to  give  up. 
There  was  a  large  debt  and  the  part-ner  would  not  help 


THE  LIFE   OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 


37 


pay  it,  so  Lin-coln  took  it  all  on  him-self,  though  long 
years  went  by  ere  it  was  all  paid. 

Law  came  to  him  as  the  next  best  move,  and  once 
more  the  young  man  gave  his  mind  to  it  all  his  time, 
days  as  well  as  most  of 
the  nights.  But  coin 
could  not  come  from 
that  source  for  quite 
a  while  yet,  and,  in 
the  mean-time,  there 
must  be  food  and 
clothes. 

The  new  lands,  just 
there,  had  not  been 
sur-veyed.  There  was 
need  of  a  man  to  do 
this.  Lin-coln  heard 
of  a  book  which  would 
tell  him  how  to  work 
with  chain  and  rule.  He  spent  six  weeks  with  that 
book  in  his  hand  most  of  the  time.  Then  he  set  off  to 
start  work,  and  as  he  was  too  poor  to  buy  a  chain,  he 
found  a  strong  grape  vine  to  take  its  place.       He    was 


AKDREW   JACKSON 


38  THE  LIFE    OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

right  glad   of  the  sums  which   came  to  him    then   for 
do-ing  this  work. 

The  pres-i-dent  of  the  U.  S.  at  that  time  was  An-drew 
Jack-son.  He  was  a  strong  friend  of  A-bra-ham  Lin- 
coln and  made  him  Post-mas-ter  of  New  Sa-lem  in  1833. 

As  folks  did  not  write  much  in  those  days,  the  post 
of-fice  took  but  a  small  part  of  Mr.  Lin-coln's  time. 
The  news-pa-pers  which  came  by  post  were  read,  and 
passed  from  one  to  an-oth-er,  and  the  post-mas-ter  oft-en 
told  the  news  as  he  went  to  the  hou-ses  where  let-ters 
were  to  be  left.  The  hat  took  the  place  of  a  mail  bag. 
The  grape  vine  chain  and  the  tools  with  which  the 
length  and  breadth  of  the  land  were  found  went  a-long, 
too,  as  the  good  man  took  up  his  job  at  sur-vey-ing.  Law 
books  must  have  their  share  of  time  and  that  had  to 
come  then,  most-ly  from  sleep  hours.  There  were 
scores  of  folks  who  asked  the  post-mas-ter  to  help  them. 
This  he  did  with  great  good  will.  He  now  knew  some 
law  and  could  set  them  right.  All  had  trust  in  him. 
It  was  not  long,  then,  ere  he  was  at  the  Bar. 


THE  LIFE   OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  39 


CHAPTER   V. 

LEADER    FOR    FREEDOM  J      LAW    MAKER. 

When  A-bra-ham  Lin-coln  was  a  score  and  five  years 
old,  a  great  chance  to  step  up  came  to  him.  His  friends 
sent  him  to  the  Il-li-nois  Leg-is-la-ture.  He  had  then 
not  one  dol-lar  with  which  he  could  buy  clothes  to  wear 
to  that  place.  A  friend  let  him  have  the  funds  of  which 
he  was  in  need,  sure  that  they  would  come  back  to  him. 
At  first,  the  young  man  in  the  new  place  did  not 
talk  or  do  much.  He  felt  that  it  was  best  for  him,  then, 
to  wait  and  learn.  He  made  a  stud-y  of  the  new  sort 
of  men  a-bout  him  at  that  time.  When  it  came  his  turn 
to  speak,  he  said  just  what  he  thought  on  the  theme 
that  came  up.  His  mind  told  him  that  all  who  paid 
tax-es  or  bore  arms  ought  to  have  the  right  to  vote. 
He  was  not  a-fraid  to  say  that,  though  men  of  more 
years  and  more  fame  than  he  took  the  oth-er  side.  He 
was  brave,  but  not  rash.  His  speech  was  plain,  but  to 
the  point.  He  did  not  boast.  He  did  not  try  to  hide 
the  fact  that  he  was  poor.      There    were,    some-times, 


40 


THE  LIFE   OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 


those  who  called  them-selves  "  men,"  who  would  point 
at  his  plain  clothes  of  "blue  jeans"  and  laugh  at  them, 
and  try  to  get  oth-ers  to  do  the  same.  The  great  length 
of  bod-y,  the  toil-worn  hands,  the  back-woods  ways 
made  talk  for  foes,  but  Lin-coln  bore  these  "  flings " 
well,  and  oft-en  used  them  for  jokes. 

Though  this  high  post  had  come  to  A-bra-ham  Lin- 
coln he  did  not  feel  too  proud  to  do  the  "  sim-ple  deeds 
of  kind-ness"  which  he  had 
done  all  through  his  life.  It 
seems  that  one  day  he  went 
out  with  some  law-mak-ers, 
for  a  ride  on  the  prai-ries. 
He  passed  a  place  where 
a  pig  was  stuck  in 
the  mud.  The  poor 
beast  looked  up  at 
him  as  if  beg-ging 
his  help.  The  look 
plain-ly  said  that 
death  must  soon 
come  un-less  the 
horse-man  gave  his 


A    KIND    DEED. 


THE  LIFE    OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  41 

aid.  Lin-coln  was  wear-ing  his  best  clothes  at  that  time. 
They  had  been  bought  with  the  mon-ey  his  friend  had 
loaned  him.  A  new  suit  could  not  be  his  for  a  long 
time.  And  yet,  e-ven  though  gone  past,  and  at  the 
risk  of  jeers  from  his  com-rades,  he  went  back,  got  off 
his  horse,  and  pulled  the  pig  out  up-on  firm  land.  To 
be  sure  there  was  mud  on  his  clothes,  but  his  heart  was 
free  from  re-gret. 

Though  A-bra-ham  Lin-coln  had  been  ad-mit-ted  to 
the  Bar  and  had  been  made  a  mem-ber  of  the  Leg-is-la- 
ture,  still  he  went  on  with  his  stud-ies,  nev-er  let-ting  a 
day  go  by  on  which  he  did  not  give  some  hours  to 
books.  These  books  told  about  math-e-mat-ics,  as-tron- 
o-my,  rhet-o-ric,  lit-er-a-ture,  log-ic  and  oth-er  things 
with  hard  names. 

While  at  work  with  chain  and  tools,  tak-ing  the  length 
and  breadth  of  the  land,  Mr.  Lin-coln  earned  from 
$12.00  to  $15.00  each  month.  He  used  a  part  of  this 
small  sum  to  pay  up  an  old  debt  and  al-so  had  to  help 
his  kin  from  week  to  week.  But  he  felt  he  must  give 
up  this  small  sure  mon-ey  for  the  sake  of  his  new  start 
in  life,  though  the  gains  were  by  no  means  sure  to  be 
large.     He  said  he  would  "  take  his  chance"  at  the  law. 


42  THE  LIFE  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

It  was  in  A-pril,  1837,  that  Mr.  Lin-coln  rode  in-to 
Spring-field,  111.,  on  a  horse  a  friend  had  loaned  him. 
A  few  clothes  were  all  that  he  owned,  and  these  he  had 
in  a  pair  of  sad-die  bags,  strapped  on  his  horse.  He 
drew  up  his  steed  in  front  of  Josh-u-a  Speed's  store  and 
went  in. 

"  I  want  a  room,  and  must  have  a  bed-stead  and  some 
bed-ding.      How  much  shall  I  pay?"  he  asked. 

His  friend  Speed  took  his  slate  and  count-ed  up  the 
price  of  these  things.     They  came  to  $17.00. 

"  Well,"  said  A-bra-ham  Lin-coln,  "  I've  no  doubt 
but  that  is  cheap  but  I've  no  mon-ey  to  pay  for  them. 
If  you  can  trust  me  till  Christ-mas,  and  I  earn  an-y-thing 
at  law,  I'll  pay  you  then.  If  I  fail,  I  fear  I  shall  nev-er 
be  a-ble  to  pay  you." 

Lin-coln's  face  was  sad.  He  had  worked  hard  all  his 
life,  had  helped  scores  of  folks,  and  now,  aft-er  so  man-y 
years,  when  he  much  need-ed  mon-ey,  he  had  none. 

The  friend-ly  store-keep-er  tried  to  cheer  the  good 
man.  "  I  can  fix  things  bet-ter  than  that,"  he  said.  "  I 
have  a  large  room  and  a  dou-ble  bed  up  stairs.  You 
are  wel-come  to  share  my  room  and  bed  with  me." 

So    A-bra-ham    Lin-coln  took    his    sad-die-bags    up 


THE  LIFE  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  43 

stairs,  and  then  came  down  with  a  bright  look  on  his 
face,  and  said,  "There,  I  am  moved!" 

In  Spring-field  at  that  time  was  a  man  who  had  been 
with  Lin-coln  as  a  sol-dier  in  the  In-di-an  war.  This 
was  Ma-jor  John  T.  Stu-art.  He  took  Lin-coln  in  with 
him  as  a  law-part-ner  and  their  firm  name  was  Stu-art 
&  Lin-coln. 

A-bra-ham  Lin-coln's  first  fee  was  three  dol-lars  made 
in  Oc-to-ber,  1837.  There  was  not  much  law  work  the 
first  sum-mer.  What  there  was  had  to  be  paid  for, 
oft-en,  in  but-ter,  milk,  fruit,  eggs,  or  dry  goods. 

In  those  days  folks  lived  so  far  a-part,  that  courts 
were  held  first  in  one  place  and  then  in  an  oth-er.  So 
Lin-coln  rode  a-bout  the  land,  to  go  with  the  courts  and 
pick  up  a  case  here  and  there.  In  this  way  he  saw 
lots  of  peo-ple,  made  warm  friends,  and  told  scores  of 
bright  tales. 

At  no  time  did  he  use  a  word  which  was  not  clear 
to  the  dull-est  ju-ry-man.  All  things  were  made  plain 
when  Lin-coln  tried  a  case.  Not  on-ly  was  he  plain  and 
straight  in  what  he  said  and  did,  but  his  heart  was  ev-er 
ten-der  and  true. 

A  sto-ry  is  told  of  a  thing  that  took  place   on   one  of 


U  THE  LIFE   OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

the  "cir-cuit  rid-ing"  trips.  Lin-coln  saw  two  lit-tle  birds 
that  the  wind  had  blown  from  their  nest,  but  where  that 
nest  was  one  could  not  say.  A  close  search  at  last 
brought  the  nest  to  light,  and  Lin-coln  took  the  birds 
o-ver  to  it  and  placed  them  in  it.  His  com-rades 
laughed  at  him  as  he  jumped  on  his  horse  and  was  rid- 
ing a-way. 

"That's  all  right,  boys,"  said  he.  "  But  I  couldn't  sleep 
to-night  un-less  I  had  found  the  moth-er's  nest  for  those 
birds." 

All  ha-bits  of  stud-y  were  kept  up,  and  in  time  fame 
as  a  speak-er  came  to  A-bra-ham  Lin-coln.  As  a 
wri-ter,  too,  he  was  prized.  E-ven  at  the  age  of  a  score 
and  nine  years  he  wrote  so  well  upon  themes  of  the  day 
that  the  San-ga-mon  Jour-nal  and  oth-er  pa-pers  would 
print  his  ar-ti-cles  in  full 

In  the  year  1840,  Miss  Ma-ry  Todd  of  Ken-tuc-ky 
be-came  Lin-coln's  wife,  and  helped  him  save  his  funds 
so  well  that,  in  a  short  time  he  was  a-ble  to  buy  a  small 
house  in  Spring-field.  Then,  soon,  he  bought  a  horse 
and  he  was  ver-y  glad  to  do  so. 

By  that  year  so  well  did  Lin-coln  speak  that  his  name 
was  put  upon  the  "  Har-ri-son  E-lec-to-ral  Tick-et,"  that 


THE  LIFE   OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  45 

he  should  "  can-vass  the  State."  As  he  went  a-bout  the 
land  he  oft-en  met  old  friends,  those  who  had  known  him 
as  a  poor  boy.  Some-times  it  chanced  that  he  could  be 
of  use  to  them. 

There  was  a  Jack  Arm-strong  who  once  fought  Lin- 
coln when  he  was  a  clerk  at  Of-futt's.  The  son  of  this 
man  was  in  trou-ble.  The  charge  was  mur-der.  His 
fa-ther  be-ing  dead,  the  moth-er,  Han-nah,  who  knew 
and  had  been  kind  to  the  boy  Lin-coln,  went,  now,  to 
the  man  Lin-coln  to  plead  with  him  to  save  her  son. 
The  case  was  tak-en  up,  and  much  time  and  thought 
giv-en  to  it.  Things  which  were  false  had  been  told 
but  Lin-coln  was  a-ble  to  search  out  and  find  the  truth, 
and  when  at  last  he  saw  it  and  made  oth-ers  see  it,  the 
lad  went  free. 

Though,  at  first,  A-bra-ham  Lin-coln  thought  much 
of  An-drew  Jack-son,  as  time  went  on  he  found  that 
Jack-son  held  views  that  he  could  not  hold.  So  he 
came  to  be  known  as  an  an-ti-Jack-son  man  and  made 
his  first  en-try  in-to  pub-lie  life  as  such.  At  the  age  of 
3 1  he  was  known  as  the  a-blest  Whig  stump  speak-er 
in  Il-li-nois.  Two  great  Whigs  at  that  time  were 
Dan-iel   Web-ster  and   Hen-ry   Clay.         Lin-coln    was 


46  THE  LIFE   OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

sent,  as  a  Whig,  in  1846,  to  the  Con-gress  of  the 
U-nit-ed  States,  and  he  was  the  sole  Whig  mem-ber 
from  Il-li-nois. 

Of  course,  friends  were  proud  to  feel  that  the  poor 
back-woods  lad  had  come  to  so  much  fame.  Some  of 
the  old  folks  said  they  "knew  it  was  in  him."  Oth-ers 
said  "  I  told  you  so  ! " 

Lin-coln  had  the  same  good  sense  that  he  had  from 
the  start. 

He  made  up  his  mind  to  watch  and  wait.  He  knew 
that  he  could  learn  a  deal  from  such  great  men  as  Web- 
ster and  Clay.  When  he  had  to  speak  he  said  just 
what  he  thought  in  a  plain  strong  way.  He  did  not 
want  war  with  Mex-i-co.  He  was  not  a-lone  in  this. 
But  he  thought  that  men  who  fought  in  that  war,  brave 
sol-diers,  should  have  their  re-ward. 

A  thing  that  was  of  great  weight  Lin-coln  did  at  that 
time.  He  put  in  a  bill  which  was  to  free  the  slaves  in 
the  Dis-trict  of  Co-lum-bia.  By  his  vote  more  than 
once  for  the  famed  "  Wil-mot  Pro-vi-so  "  he  hoped  to 
keep  sla-ver-y  from  the  Ter-ri-to-ries  gained  through  the 
war  with  Mex-i-co. 

Though  some  fame  came  then  to  Lin-coln,  funds  did 


THE  LIFE  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 


47 


not.     Spring-field,  home,  and  law  work  fol-lowed  when 
the  term  in  Con-gress  was  o-ver. 

Those  who  took  the  oth-er  side  from  Whigs  were 
called  Dem-o-crats.  They  made  a  strong  par-ty  in 
Il-li-nois,  and  were 
led  by  a  bright  man 
whose  name  was  Ste- 
phen A.  Doug-las. 
His  friends  called  him 
"the  Lit-tle  Gi-ant." 
This,  they  thought, 
would  make  known  to 
all  that  though  he  was 
small  in  size  he  was 
great  in  mind.  He 
was  well  thought  of 
as  a  mem-ber  of  Con- 
gress, could  make  a 
good  speech,  was  a  fine  law-yer,  knew  how  to  dress  well, 
and  had  a  way  of  mak-ing  folks  think  as  he  did. 

While  hard  at  work  in  law  ca-ses,  all  at  once,  the 
calm  of  Lin-coln's  life  was  bro-ken  by  a  thing  that  took 
place  in  1854.     A  plan  or  pro-mise  had  been  made  that 


DANIEL   WEBSTER. 


48 


THE  LIFE  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 


sla-ver-y  should  not  spread  north  of  the  state  of  Mis- 
souri. When  the  new  states  of  Kan-sas  and  Ne-bras- 
ka  were  a-bout  to   be  made,  this  good  pro-mise  was 

thrown  a-side  and  a 
bill  was  passed  by  Con- 
gress which  said  that 
the  folks  who  had  their 
homes  in  those  states 
might  say  that  there 
should  or  should  not 
be  sla-ver-y  there. 

The  man  who  put 
in  that  bill  was  Ste- 
phen A.  Doug-las. 
The  bill  roused  great 
rage  in  those  who  felt 
that  sla-ver-y  had  gone 
quite  far  e-nough. 
Most  folks  at  the  North  felt  that  the  time  had  come 
to  cry  "  halt."  All  through  the  states  this  theme  was 
so  much  talked  a-bout  that  two  sides  were  made,  one  of 
which  was  formed  of  those  who  were  will-ing  that 
sla-ver-y  should  go  on  and  spread,  while  the  oth-er  was 


HENRY   CLAY 


POSTMASTER     LINCOLN     GOING     HIS     ROUNDS 


THE  LIFE  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 


formed  of  those  who  did  not  wish  to  have  black  men 
held  as  slaves  in  the  new  lands. 

Speech-es  were  made  in  great  halls,  and  crowds 
came  to  hear  what  the  speak-ers  had  to  say.  In  Il-li- 
nois,  Lin-coln,  who  all  his  life  had  been  a-gainst  sla-ver-y, 
spoke  straight  to  the  peo-ple,  show-ing  them  the  wrong 
or  the  "  in-jus-tice"  of  that  bill.  His  first  speech  on  this 
theme,  has  been  called  "  one  of  the  great  speech-es  of  the 
world."  He  was  brave  and  dared  to  say  that  "if 
A-mer-i-ca  were  to  be  a  free  land,  the  stain  of  sla-ver-y, 
must  be  wiped  out." 

He  said  "A  house  di-vi-ded  a-gainst  it-self  can-not 
stand.  I  be-lieve  this  gov-ern-ment  can-not  en-dure 
half  slave  and  half  free.  I  do  not  ex-pect  the  Un-ion  to 
be  dis-solved  ;  I  do  not  ex-pect  the  house  to  fall ;  but  I 
ex-pect  it  will  cease  to  be  di-vi-ded.  It  will  become  all 
one  thing  or  all  the  oth-er.  Ei-ther  the  op-po-nents  of  sla- 
ver-y  will  ar-rest  the  fur-ther  spread  of  it  and  place  it 
where  the  pub-lie  mind  shall  rest  in  the  be-lief  that  it  is 
in  the  course  of  ul-ti-mate  ex-tinc-tion,  or  the  ad-vo-cates 
will  push  it  for-ward  till  it  shall  be-come  a-like  law-ful 
in  all  the  states — old  as  well  as  new,  North  as  well  as 
South." 


50  THE  LIFE   OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

This  speech  made  a  great  stir  in  the  land.  Some 
men  and  worn-en  had  worked  for  years  to  do  and  say 
the  best  thing  for  the  slave  but  not  one  had  put  things 
just  right  till  Lin-coln  said  that  "  if  A-mer-i-ca  would 
live  it  must  be  free." 

Lin-coln's  friends  told  him  that  they  felt  that  his 
speech  would  make  foes  for  him  and  keep  him  from  be- 
ing sen-a-tor.     The  good  man  then  said : 

"  Friends,  this  thing  has  been  re-tard-ed  long  e-nough. 
The  time  has  come  when  those  sen-ti-ments  should  be 
ut-tered  ;  and  if  it  is  de-creed  that  I  should  go  down  be- 
cause of  this  speech,  then  let  me  go  down  linked  to  the 
truth — let  me  die  in  the  ad-vo-ca-cy  of  what  is  just  and 
right." 

From  the  first,  Lin-coln  felt  as  if  he  were  in  the 
hands  of  God  and  led  by  Him  in  what  he  was  to  say 
and  do  in  the  cause  of  Free-dom  for  all.  He  felt  that 
he,  him-self,  was  not  much,  but  that  "  Jus-tice  and  Truth  " 
would  live  though  he  might  go  down  in  their  de-fence. 

Though  not  quite  half  a  cen-tu-ry  had  then  gone  by 
since  his  dear  moth-er  had  held  him  in  her  arms  in  their 
poor  Ken-tuc-ky  home,  and  it  was  less,  too,  than  a 
score  and    five  years  since  he  swung  his  axe  in  the 


THE  LIFE   OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  51 

woods  on  the  banks  of  the  San-ga-mon  to  earn  his 
bread  and  that  of  his  kin  from  day  to  day,  still,  with  the 
great  prize  be-fore  him  of  that  high  post  in  the  land, 
which  he  had  long  hoped  to  gain,  he  casts  from  him  all 
chan-ces  for  his  fur-ther  rise,  and  in  that  hour  stands 
forth  one  of  the  tru-est,  no-blest  men  of  all  time 

Friends  kept  say-ing  to  Lin-coln  "  You've  ruined 
your  chan-ces.  You've  made  a  mis-take.  Aren't  you 
sor-ry  ?  Don't  you  wish  you  hadn't  writ-ten  that 
speech  ?  " 

Straight  came  the  an-swer,  and  it  was  this : 

"  If  I  had  to  draw  a  pen  a-cross  my  whole  life  and 
e-rase  it  from  ex-ist-ence,  and  I  had  one  poor  lit-tle  gift 
or  choice  left  as  to  what  I  should  save  from  the  wreck, 
I  should  choose  that  speech  and  leave  it  to  the  world 
as  it  is. 

Men  then  be-gan  to  think  as  they  had  nev-er  thought 
be-fore.  It  seemed  as  if  a  death-shot  had  been  sent 
straight  to  the  heart  of  sla-ver-y.  That  speech,  was, 
how-ev-er  but  the  first  of  a  hard  and  fierce  strug-gle 
be-tween  two  sides  of  one  of  the  great-est  ques-tions 
ev-er  brought  be-fore  an-y  na-tion. 

Lin-coln  and  Doug-las  went  up  and  down  the  state 


52  THE  LIFE   OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

of  Il-li-nois  talk-ing  in  halls  and  in  "wig-wams"  as  the 
build-ings  were  called  where  they  spoke.  Some-times 
they  made  a  speech  on  the  same  day,  out  of  doors, 
where  large  crowds  would  come.  Both  oft-en  held  forth 
in  the  same  hall,  one  mak-ing  his  views  known  be-fore 
din-ner  and  the  oth-er  talk-ing  on  the  oth-er  side  af-ter 
din-ner.  Lin-coln  was  not  known  to  make  fun  of  an-y 
one,  but  there  were  scores  who  made  fun  of  him,  and 
tried  to  make  him  an-gry.  But  he  an-swered  all  their 
scoff  with  sound  state-ments,  and  found  friends  where 
oth-ers  would  have  made  foes.  Doug-las  had  a  way  of 
tell-ing  folks  that  Lin-coln  said  some  things  which  he 
did  not  say.  This  was  hard  to  bear,  but  Lin-coln  would 
tell  the  crowds  just  what  he  did  say  at  such  and  such  a 
meet-ing  and  peo-ple  would  be-lieve  him. 

Lin-coln's  print-ed  speech-es  went  through  all  the 
states,  and  soon  folks  out-side  of  his  own  state  had  a 
wish  to  hear  him.  They  felt  that  he  was  at  the  head  of 
the  par-ty  for  real  lib-er-ty.  So  the  time  came  when 
A-bra-ham  Lin-coln  spoke  East  and  West,  in  Il-li-nois 
O-hi-o,  Con-nect-i-cut,  New  Hamp-shire,  Rhode  Is-land, 
Kan-sas,  and  New  York,  and  crowds  would  be  still 
while  he  pled  the  cause   of  lib-er-ty  and   struck  blows 


THE  LIFE  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  53 

at  ola-ver-y.  It  is  said  that  when  he  spoke  in  New- 
York  he  ap-peared,  in  ev-er-y  sense  of  the  word,  like 
one  of  the  plain  folks  among  whom  he  loved  to  be 
count-ed.  At  first  sight  one  could  not  see  any-thing 
great  in  him  save  his  great  size,  which  would  strike  one 
e-ven  in  a  crowd ;  his  clothes  hung  in  a  loose  way  on 
his  gi-ant  frame,  his  face  was  dark  and  had  no  tinge  of 
col-or.  His  face  was  full  of  seams  and  bore  marks  of 
his  long  days  of  hard  toil ;  his  eyes  were  deep-set  and 
had  a  look  of  sad-ness  in  them.  At  first  he  did  not 
seem  at  ease.  The  folks  who  were  in  that  place  to  hear 
him  were  men  and  wom-en  of  note  as  well  as  those  not 
so  well  known.  There  was  a  sea  of  ea-ger  fa-ces  to 
greet  him  and  to  find  out  what  that  rude  child  of  the 
peo-ple  was  like.  All  soon  formed  great  i-de-as  of  him, 
and  these  held  to  the  end  of  his  talk.  He  met  with 
praise  on  all  sides.  He  rose  to  his  best  when  he  saw 
what  the  folks  thought  of  him.  He  spoke  in  his  best 
vein.  His  eyes  shone  bright,  his  voice  rang,  his  face 
seemed  to  light  up  the  whole  place.  For  an  hour  and 
a  half  he  held  sway  in  that  hall  and  spoke  straight  to 
the  point,  clos-ing  with  these  words, 

"Let  us  have  faith   that  right  makes  might,   and   in 


54  THE  LIFE   OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

that  faith  let  us,  to  the  end,  dare  to  do  our  du-ty  as  we 
un-der-stand  it. 

A  tale  is  told  of  Lin-coln's  go-ing  with  a  friend,  while 
in  New  York,  to  visit  a  Sun-day  School  at  Five  Points, 
a  place  where  waifs  were  brought  each  Sab-bath  to 
meet  kind  men  and  wom-en  whose  wish  was  to  help 
them. 

As  the  good  man  saw  the  poor  chil-dren  from  the 
slums  of  the  cit-y,  his  ten-der  heart  was  deep-ly  touched. 
His  own  poor  child-hood  came  up  before  him,  and  when 
urged  to  speak  he  said  words  which  brought  tears  to  all 
eyes.  He  told  them  that  he,  too,  had  been  poor;  that 
his  toes  stuck  out  through  worn  shoes  in  win-ter,  that 
his  arms  were  out  at  the  el-bows  and  he  shiv-ered  with 
the  cold.  He  said  he  had  found  that  there  was  on-ly 
one  rule — "al-ways  do  the  best  you  can."  He  said  he 
had  al-ways  tried  to  do  the  best  he  could,  and  that  if 
they  would  fol-low  that  rule  that  they  "  would  get  on 
some-how."  When  he  felt  that  he  had  talked  long 
e-nough  and  tried  to  bring  his  words  to  a  close,  there 
were  cries  of  "  Go  on!"  "  Do  go  on  ! "  and  so  he  told  his 
young  hear-ers  man-y  things  that  they  were  glad  to  hear. 
Then  they  sang  some  of  their  songs  for  him,  and  one  of 


THE   LIFE    OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  55 

these  moved  him  to  tears.  He  asked  for  the  book 
where  those  words  were  print-ed,  and  a  cop-y  hav-ing 
been  giv-en  to  him  he  put  the  lit-tle  hym-nal  in-to  his 
pocket,  and  man-y  a  time  in  af-ter  days  drew  it  out  to 
read. 

At  last,  as  he  was  leav-ing  the  school,  one  teach-er, 
who  had  not  caught  his  name,  when  the  head  of  the 
Mis-sion,  Mr.  Pease,  gave  it  out,  went  up  to  him  as  he 
passed  and  asked  what  it  was.  The  great  man  said,  in 
low  and  qui-et  tones,  "  A-bra-ham  Lin-coln,  from 
Il-li-nois." 


CHAPTER   VI. 

LINCOLN     AND     DOUGLAS. 

Though  Lin-coln  lost  his  e-lec-tion  as  Sen-a-tor  he  did 
not  seem  to  care.  Doug-las  was  the  choice,  and  Lin- 
coln went  back  to  Spring-field  and  took  up  his  law  work. 
This,  too,  all  turned  out  well  for  Lin-coln  and  the  cause 
he  loved,  for  had  he  been  e-lect-ed  Sen-a-tor  he  might 
not  have  tak-en  just  the  part  he  did  in  the  work  of  help- 


56  THE  LIFE    OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

ing  to  form  the  Re-pub-li-can  par-ty.  While  Lin-coln 
then  gave  much  work  to  the  Law,  he  felt  the  stress  of 
the  times  so  much,  and  knew  the  great  need  of  help-ing 
the  side  of  the  right  just  then,  that  he  did  not  go  out  of 
pol-i-tics.  He  took  an  ac-tive  in-ter-est  in  ev-er-y  cam- 
paign and  wrote  much  to  aid  the  cause. 

It  was  in  the  cold  months  of  1855  that  he  went  to  a 
meet-ing  of  Free-soil  ed-i-tors  at  De-ca-tur,  111.,  and 
then  and  there  a  move  was  made  to  help  on  the  new 
par-ty  which  was  to  do  its  best  to  stop  sla-ver-y  from 
spreading.  He  worked  ear-ly  and  late  for  the  good  of 
this  par-ty  trying  to  make  men  of  un-like  views  agree. 
He  said  his  wish  was  "  to  hedge  a-gainst  di-vis-ions," 
and  keep  all  straight  to  the  point  of  hold-ing  back  the 
spread  of  sla-ver-y. 

Work  as  hard  as  he  might  for  this  great  cause  there 
were  thous-ands  who  did  not  think  as  Lin-coln  did. 
They  said  he  was  wrong  and  should  they  fol-low  him 
the  land  would  be  in  ru-ins  and  the  Un-ion  at  an  end. 
But  all  this  could  not  stop  this  good  man,  for  he  knew 
that  he  spoke  the  truth,  so  threats,  a-buse,  and  sneers 
could  not  stir  him  from  his  grand  work. 

Be-fore  this,   in  Ju-ly    1854,   moves  be-gan   in   man-y 


THE  LIFE   OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  57 

parts  of  the  North  to  form  a  new  par-ty  which  should 
be  a-gainst  the  spread  of  sla-ver-y.  So  in  June,  1856, 
most  of  the  States  sent  del-e-gates  to  Phil-a-del-phi-a 
and  then  and  there  the  Re-pub-li-can  par-ty  was  formed. 
They  chose  John  C.  Fre-mont  as  their  can-di-date  for 
the  Pres-i-den-cy.  Fre-mont  was  known  as  a  brave  ex- 
plor-er  in  the  plains  of  the  West,  and  one  who  took  part 
in  the  con-quest  of  Cal-i-for-ni-a. 

There  was,  al-so,  a  par-ty  called  "  The  A-mer-i-can," 
or  "  Know-noth-ing"  and  they  named  as  their  choice, 
ex-Pres-i-dent  Mil-lard  Fill-more.  This  par-ty  grew  fast 
two  or  three  years  and  then  came  to  an  end.  Its  aim 
was  to  keep  men  from  o'er  the  sea  out  of  of-flce  and 
make  them  wait  more  time  ere  they  could  vote.  The 
theme  of  sla-ver-y  then  came  to  have  a  new  form  and 
there  was  no  room  for  other  de-bate. 

The  Dem-o-cra-tic  par-ty  met  in  Cin-cin-na-ti  and 
named  James  Bu-chan-an  of  Penn-syl-va-nia  as  their 
choice.      Bu-chan-an  was  e-lec-ted. 

Ste-phen  A.  Doug-las  thought  he  was  sure  ofanom- 
i-na-tion  for  that  same  place.  He  had  done  much  work 
for  the  men  who  held  slaves  but  they  did  not  mean  to 
re-ward  him  for  what  he  had  done. 


58 


THE  LIFE  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 


"  Shall  Kan-sas  come  in  free  or  not  ? "  was  the  ques- 
tion that,  then,  was  up-on  the  minds  of  thous-ands  up-on 
thous-ands  of  the  peo-ple  of  the  U-nit-ed  States. 

A-bra-ham  Lin- 
coln, then,  think-ingof 
the  mill-ions  of  his 
fel-low-men  insla-ver-y 
and  of  that  slave-mar- 
ket in  New  Or-leans, 
which  had  nev-er  gone 
out  of  his  mind,  spoke, 
both  in  pub-lie  and 
pri-vate,  with  the  force 
that  e-ven  he  had 
ne'er  used  be-fore.  He 
felt  God's  time  was 
near  at  hand  when 
those  who  had  been 
bought  and  sold  like  beasts  of  the  field,  should  be  set 
free.  He  did  not  then  see  just  how  it  would  be  done, 
but  he  said  to  a  friend ; 

"  Some-times  when  I  am  speak-ing  I  feel  that  the 
time  is  soon  com-ing  when  the  sun  shall  shine  and  the 


STEPHEN    A.     DOUGLAS 


THE  LIFE  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  69 

rain  fall  on  no  man  who  shall  go  forth  to  un-re-quit-ed 
toil.  How  it  will  come,  I  can-not  tell;  but  that  time 
will  sure-ly  come  !  " 

It  was  in  March  1857,  when  Bu-chan-an  had  his  in- 
au-gu-ral  ad-dress  all  writ-ten  out  with  care,  and  he  was 
rea-dy  to  take  his  seat  as  Chief  in  the  land,  that  he  was 
told  that  a  great  step  was  a-bout  to  be  tak-en  by  the  "  Su- 
preme Court,"  the  high-est  court  of  law  in  the  land.  It 
seems  that  the  jud-ges  were  then  to  de-cide  in  a  case 
which  dealt  with  the  rights  of  men  who  held  slaves  un- 
der the  Con-sti-tu-tion. 

Mr.  Bu-chan-an  thought  it  would  be  well  to  put  a  lew 
words  more  into  his  ad-dress,  and  these  up-on  the  theme 
then  brought  up  to  him.  So  he  wrote  that  he  hoped 
the  steps  that  were  to  be  taken  would  "  for-ev-er  set-tie 
that  vex-a-tious  slave  ques-tion." 

In  a  few  days  Rog-er  B.  Ta-ny  of  Ma-ry-land, 
Chief  Jus-tice,  gave  the  peo-ple  of  the  U-ni-ted  States  a 
great  sur-prise  in  what  he  had  to  say  a-bout  two  slaves. 

A  sur-geon  in  the  ar-my,  Dr.  Em-er-son,  of  St.  Lou-is, 
owned  Dred  Scott  and  his  wife  Har-ri-et.  He  took 
them  to  Rock  Is-land,  in  I-o-wa,  to  Fort  Snell-ing,  Min- 
ne-so-ta,  and  then  back  to  St.  Lou-is.  As  they  had  been 


60  THE  LIFE  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

tak-en  in-to  a  Free  Ter-ri-to-ry  the  slaves  made  a 
claim  that  they  were  en-ti-tled  to  their  lib-er-ty  un-der 
the  com-mon  law  of  the  coun-try.  Five  of  the  nine 
jud-ges  of  that  court  were  from  the  Slave  States.  Sev-en 
of  the  jud-ges  were  of  the  same  mind  that  the  Con-sti- 
tu-tion  "  re-cog-nized  slaves  as  prop-er-ty  and  noth-ing 
more."  The  jud-ges  held  that  as  the  blacks  were  not  and 
nev-er  could  be  cit-i-zens,  they  could  not  bring  a  suit  in 
an-y  court  of  the  U-ni-ted  States.  The  claim  of  Dred 
and  Har-ri-et  Scott  would  have  to  be  set-tied  by  the 
Court  of  Mis-sou-ri.  It  was  de-cid-ed  that  some  laws 
made  in  1820  and  1850  which  could  have  helped  the 
case  of  these  two  poor  blacks,  were  "  un-con-sti-tu- 
tion-al,"  not  le-gal  or  so  as  to  agree  with  the  law.  They 
said  all  this  showed,  plain-ly,  that  a  slave  had  no  more 
rights  than  a  cow  or  pig,  and  that  be-ing  the  case  sla- 
ver-y  could  not  on-ly  be  in  the  Ter-ri-tor-ies,  but  just  as 
well  in  the  Free  States.  This  sort  of  be-lief  up-set  the 
i-deas  that  Mr.  Doug-las  taught,  for  he  had  told  all  to 
whom  he  made  his  great  speech-es  that  on-ly  those  who 
lived  in  a  Ter-ri-to-ry  had  a  right  to  say  wheth-er  they 
would  or  would  not  have  sla-ver-y. 

Out  of  all  these  nine  jud-ges  there  were  but  two  who 


THE  LIFE  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  61 

were  brave,  wise,  and  just  e-nough  to  hold  to  the  point 
that  it  was  up-on  free-dom  and  not  up-on  sla-ver-y  that 
the  na-tion  had  been  found-ed.  The  names  of  those  two 
men  were  Mr.  Cur-tis  of  Mas-sa-chu-setts,  and  Mr. 
McLean  of  O-hi-o. 

The  peo-ple  rose  in  great  wrath  at  what  the  sev-en 
jud-ges  had  said.  With  the  blood  of  free-dom  in  their 
veins  they  plain-ly  stat-ed  that  those  un-just  jud-ges  had 
"  de-cid-ed  "  what  they  did  in  the  in-ter-ests  of  sla-ver-y. 

The  eyes  of  thou-sands  of  peo-ple  o-pened.  They 
saw  now  that  there  was  much  hard  work  to  be  done  if 
there  were  to  be  a  "  Free  Kan-sas,"  and  so  they  gave 
their  votes  and  la-bor  on  the  "free"  side.  Then  when 
the  slave-hold-ers  felt  there  were  more  folks  who  want-ed 
Kan-sas  free,  they  sent  men  from  oth-er  states  in-to 
Kan-sas  and  this  got  in  vast  numbers  of  votes  that  had 
no  right  to  be  put  in-to  the  bal-lot-box-es. 

The  two  sets  had  con-ven-tions,  the  Free  States  at 
To-pe-ka  and  the  slave-hold-ers  at  Le-comp-ton.  The 
pa-pers  drawn  up  in  these  two  pla-ces  were  sent  to 
Wash -ing- ton.  In  the  cit-y  there  were  men  who  did 
their  best  to  get  Bu-chan-an  to  try  to  have  Kan-sas 
made  a  state  where  there  could  be  slaves. 


62  THE  LIFE  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

Then  it  was  that  Ste-phe-n  A.  Doug-las  went  to  see 
Pres-i-dent  Bu-chan-an  and  have  a  talk  with  him.  Doug- 
las was  an-gry  at  what  the  un-just  jud-ges  said.  The 
Pres-i-dent  said  that  he,  him-self,  was  in  fa-vor  of  the 
Le-comp-ton  pa-per,  that  for  slaves  in  Kan-sas.  Then 
Doug-las  told  him  that  he  should  work  a-gainst  the 
views  there  held,  and  Bu-chan-an  told  him  that  a  Dem- 
a-crat  could  not  have  i-deas  that  would  dif-fer  from 
those  held  by  the  pres-i-dent  and  lead-ers  of  his  own 
par-ty,  with-out  be-ing  crush-ed  by  them.  So  Doug-las 
went  a- way.  He  knew  the  slave  pow-er  would  not 
for-give  him  for  the  stand  he  took,  but  he  al-so  knew 
that  if  he  did  not  work  a-gainst  hav-ing  slaves  in  Kan- 
sas he  would  lose  his  own  re-e-lec-tion  to  the  Se-nate. 

So  a  new  al-ly  a-gainst  the  spir-it  of  sla-ver-y  was 
gained,  though  Doug-las  did  not  work  in  the  same  har- 
ness as  those  who  had  formed  the  new  par-ty  of  which 
we  have  spok-en — the  Re-pub-li-can. 


THE  LIFE  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  63 


CHAPTER   VII. 

THE    PEOPLE    ASK    LINCOLN    TO    BE    THEIR    PRESIDENT. 

All  this  time  A-bra-ham  Lin-coln  has  go-ing  on  do-ing 
his  work  in  law  and  help-ing  as  much  as  he  could  to 
fix  in  the  minds  of  the  peo-ple  right  i-de-as  for  the  gui- 
dance of  the  na-tion. 

Those  who  could  un-der-stand  the  true  needs  of  the 
hour,  and  saw  how  strong  they  were,  felt  that  if  they 
could  place  this  man,  who  had  ris-en  up  in  the  land  to 
lead  the  for-ces  to  lib-er-ty,  in  a  post  where  he  could 
have  full  sway  and  do  his  best,  they  must  name  him  for 
just  that  work,  so,  when  the  "  Na-tion-al  Re-pub-li-can 
Con-ven-tion "  met  at  Chi-ca-go,  May  1 6th,  1860,  to 
pro-pose  some  one  for  their  Chief,  they  named  A-bra- 
ham  Lin-coln,  and  said  he  was  the  man  whom  they 
want-ed  to  be  the  next  Pres-i-dent  of  the  U-ni-ted 
States. 

Not  on-ly  was  this  a  great  thing  for  Lin-coln,  but  it 
was,  al-so,  a  bless-ed  tri-umph  for  the  A-mer-i-can  peo- 
ple.    There  were  three  oth-er  men   whose  names  were 


64  THE  LIFE  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

put  up  for  the  same  post.  These  three  men  and  their 
friends  thought  it  a  most  un-wise  act  to  name  Lin-coln. 
But  as  time  went  on  it  was  found  that  the  e-lec-tion  of 
A-bra-ham  Lin-coln  was  the  best  thing  that  ev-er  came 
to  the  coun-try. 

At  first,  when  Mr.  Pick-ett,  an  ed-i-tor  in  Il-li-nois, 
wrote  to  Lin-coln,  in  A-pril,  1859,  that  he  and  his  part- 
ner were  off  talk-ing  to  the  Re-pub-li-can  ed-i-tors  of  the 
state  on  the  theme  of  hav-ing  Lin-coln's  name  come  out 
at  the  same  mo-ment  from  each  pa-per,  as  a  can-di-date 
for  the  Pres-i-den-cy,  Lin-coln  wrote  to  him  in  re-ply : 

"  I  must,  in  truth,  say  that  I  do  not  think  my-self  fit 
for  the  Pres-i-den-cy."  Then  he  went  on  to  say  that  he 
thanked  his  friends  for  their  trust  in  him,  but  thought  it 
would  be  best  for  the  cause  not  to  have  such  a  step  by 
all  ac  the  same  time. 

But  some  of  Il-li-nois  best  men  took  the  mat-ter  se-ri- 
ous-ly  in  hand,  and,  at  last,  Lin-coln  said  they  might 
"  use  his  name."  Then  his  friends  went  to  work,  and 
in  con-ven-tion  it  was  found  that  A-bra-ham  Lin-coln 
had  not  on-ly  the  whole  vote  of  Il-li-nois  to  start  with, 
but  won  votes  on  all  sides,  and  did  not  make  a  foe  of 
an-y  ri-val. 


ON     THE     STUMP    WITH     DOUGLAS, 


THE  LIFE   OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  65 


The  Dem-o-crat-ic  par-ty  had  split  in  two  on  the  slave 
theme.  The  ma-jor-i-ty  of  the  Dem-o-crats  who  met  at 
Bal-ti-more  named  Ste-phen  A.  Doug-las  of  Il-li-nois, 
the  au-thorofthe  Kan-sas-Ne-bras-ka  bill.  Those  Dem- 
o-crats  who  stuck  close  to  the  South  put  for-ward  John 
C.  Breck-in-ridge  of  Ken-tuc-ky.  The  "  Con-sti-tu-tion- 
al  Un-ion  "  par-ty,  as  it  was  called,  which  wished  to  make 
peace  be-tween  the  an-gry  sec-tions,  named  Bell  of 
Ten-nes-see. 

The  Re-pub-li-cans  were  u-ni-ted  and  ea-ger.  The 
e-lec-tion  come  on  Nov.  6,  i860,  and  the  re-sult  was  just 
what  most  thought  it  would  be.  The  Re-pub-li-can 
e-lec-tors  did  not  get  a  "  ma-jor-i-ty,"  of  all  the  votes  by 
near-ly  a  mill-ion,  but  the  split  of  the  Dem-o-crats  left 
them  a  "  plu-ral-i-ty." 

In  the  "  E-lec-to-ral "  col-le-ges  A-bra-ham  Lin-coln 
got  a  plu-ral-i-ty  of  57  votes  and  so  was  the  choice  for 
Pres-i-dent  of  the  U-ni-ted  States. 

A  great  crowd  surged  through  the  streets  of  Chi-ca- 
go  at  the  time  when  the  con-ven-tion  nom-i-na-ted  Lin- 
coln. Cheers  rent  the  air,  while  can-non  roared  and 
bon-fires  blazed.  Then  the  men  who  had  tak-en  part 
in  the  work  turned  their  steps  home-ward. 


06 


THE  LIFE  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 


THE    WIGWAM    AT    CHICAGO    IN    WHICH    LINCOLN    WAS    NAMED    FOR    PRESIDENT. 

The  next  morn-ing  a  pas-sen-ger  car  drawn  by  the 
fast-est  en-gine  of  the  "  Il-li-nois  Cen-tral  Rail-road' 
rolled  out  from  Chi-ca-go,  and  took  some  gen-tle-men 
straight  to  Spring-field  to  tell  Mr.  Lin-coln  of  his  nom-i- 
na-tion,  though,  of  course,  the  news  had  been  sent  there 
by  wire  the  night  be-fore. 

It  was  eight  o'clock  in  the  morn-ing  when  the  par-ty 
reached  the  Lin-coln  home.  The  two  sons,  Wil-lie  and 
Thom-as,  or  "  Tad  "  as  he  was  called,  were  sit-ting  on  the 
fence,  laugh-ing  with  some  boy  friends.  Tad  stood  up 
and  shout-ed  "  Hoo-ray ! "  in  wel-come  to  the  com-mit- 
tee.     A  brief  ad-dress  was  giv-en  by  the  lead-er,   and  a 


THE  LIFE  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  67 


short  re-ply  came  from  Lin-coln.  Then  they  all  went 
in-to  the  li-bra-ry  and  met  Mrs.  Lin-coln,  and  a  light 
lunch  was  served.  It  was  thought,  by  some,  that  Lin- 
coln would  set  wines  be-fore  his  guests  at  this  time,  but 
he  thought  this  thing  one  that  was  not  best  for  folks,  and 
did  not  do  it.  He  had  learned  a  sad  les-son  from  what 
he  saw  of  this  sort  in  his  young  days. 

Folks  far  and  near  then  came  to  tell  Mr.  Lin-coln 
that  they  were  glad  of  the  good  news. 

One  good  wom-an  with  but-ter  and  eggs  to  sell  from 
her  farm,  said  she  thought  she  "  would  like  to  shake 
hands  with  Mr.  Lin-coln  once  more."  Then  she  told 
him,  as  he  did  not  seem  to  re-mem-ber  her,  that  he  had 
stopped  at  her  house  to  get  some-thing  to  eat  when  he 
was  '  rid-ing  the  cir-cuit,'  and  that  one  day  he  came 
when  she  had  noth-ing  but  bread  and  milk  to  give  him, 
and  he  said  that  it  was  good  e-nough  for  the  Pres-i-dent 
of  the  U-ni-ted  States,  "and  now,"  she  said,  "  I'm  glad 
that  you  are  go-ing  to  be  Pres-i-dent ! " 

An-oth-er  guest  came  one  day  when  Lin-coln  was 
talk-ing  with  the  Gov-er-nor  of  his  state  and  a  few  more. 
The  door  o-pened  and  an  old  la-dy  in  a  big  sun  bon- 
net and  farm  clothes  walked  in  and   told   Mr.   Lin-coln 


68  THE  LIFE   OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

that  she  had  a.  present  for  him.  She  said  she  had  been 
want-ing  to  give  him  some-thing,  and  these  were  all  she 
had.  Then,  with  much  pride,  she  put  in-to  his  hands  a 
pair  of  blue  wool-len  stock-ings,  and  said,  "  I  spun  the 
yarn  and  knit  them  socks  my-self!" 

The  kind  gift  and  thought  pleased  Mr.  Lincoln.  He 
thanked  her,  asked  for  her  folks  at  home,  and  walked 
with  her  to  the  door.  When  he  came  back  he  took  up 
the  socks  and  held  them  by  their  toes,  one  in  each  hand, 
while  a  queer  smile  came  to  his  face  and  he  said  to  his 
guest, — 

"The  old  la-dy  got  my  lat-i-tude  and  long-i-tude 
a-bout  right,  did-n't  she  ? " 

The  "plain  peo-ple,"  the  sort  from  whom  Lin-coln 
sprung,  were  ver-y  proud  of  him,  and  day  af-ter  day  some 
of  them  went  to  see  him,  bring-ing  small  gifts  and 
kind  words  and  wish-es. 

One  day,  when  Mr.  Lin-coln,  clad  in  a  lin-en  dus-ter, 
sat  at  the  desk  in  his  of-fice  with  a  pile  of  let-ters  and 
an  ink-stand  of  wood  be-fore  him,  he  saw  two  shy 
young  men  peep  in  at  the  door.  He  spoke  to  them 
in  a  kind  way  and  asked  them  to  come  in  and  make  a 
call. 


^/^Lc^ocr&s 


70  THE  LIFE    OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

The  farm  hands  thanked  him  and  went  in.  Then 
they  said  that  one  of  them,  whose  name  was  Jim,  was 
quite  tall.  They  had  told  him  that  he  was  as  tall  as  the 
great  A-bra-ham  Lin-coln,  and  they  had  made  up  their 
minds  to  come  to  town  and  see  if  they  could  find  out  if 
that  was  the  case. 

So  with  a  smile  on  his  face  Mr.  Lin-coln  left  his 
desk,  and  the  morn-ing's  mail,  and  asked  the  young  man 
to  stand  up  by  the  side  of  the  wall.  Then  Mr.  Lin. 
coin  put  a  cane  on  the  top  of  his  head,  and  let  the  end 
of  the  stick  touch  the  plas-ter-ing.  Thus  he  found  his 
height.  Mr.  Lin-coln  told  the  man  that  it  was  now  his 
turn  to  hold  the  cane  and  do  the  same  for  him.  So 
Mr.  Lin-coln  stepped  un-der  the  cane,  and  it  was  found 
that  both  were  the  same  height.  Jim's  friends  had  made 
a  good  guess. 

Small  deeds  of  kind-ness  like  these  won  hosts  of 
friends  for  A-bra-ham. 

As  time  went  on  the  trains  brought  scores  of  folks  to 
Spring-field.  Some  said  they  had  just  come  to  shake 
hands  with  Mr.  Lin-coln,  while  more  told  a  straight  tale 
and  said  they  came  to  ask  for  a  post  of  some  sort,  and 
thought  they  would  "take  time  by  the  fore-lock."       In 


THE    LIFE    OF   ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  71 

fact  the  crowds  of  men  who  came  to  ask  for  pri-zes  were 
so  large  that  Mr.  Lin-coln  had  to  leave  his  old  desk 
and  go  to  a  room  in  the  State-house  which  the  Gov-ern- 
or  of  Il-li-nois  had  placed  at  his  use.  Here  he  met  all 
in  his  kind  way. 

While  Lin-coln  wait-ed,  af-ter  his  nom-i-na-tion,  he 
kept  track  of  all  the  moves  that  were  made.  Still,  he 
had  so  much  trust  that  he  said,  "The  peo-ple  of  the 
South  have  too  much  sense  to  ru-in  the  gov-ern-ment," 
and  he  told  his  friends  that  they  must  not  say  or  feel 
an-y  ill  will  to  those  who  were  not  of  the  same  mind, 
but  "  re-mem-ber  that  all  A-mer-i-cans  are  broth-ers  and 
should  live  like  broth-ers." 

But,  ere  long,  it  was  plain  that  the  storm  which  had 
been  mak-ing  its  way  slow-ly  but  sure-ly,  was  a-bout  to 
burst. 

As  soon  as  Lin-coln's  e-lec-tion  was  known  the  South 
be-gan  to  throw  off  the  ties  which  bound  it  to  the 
Un-ion. 

The  Sen-a-tors  from  South  Car-o-li-na  gave  up  their 
posts  four  days  lat-er.  Six  weeks  from  that  time  that 
state  went  out  from  the  Un-ion  and  set  up  q  new 
gov-ern-ment. 


f2 


THE  LIFE  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 


One  af-ter  an-oth-er,  other  states  in  the  South  went 
out,  also,  and  joined  South  Car-o-li-na,  un-til,  by  the 
first  of  Feb-ru-a-ry,  1861,  all  the  sev-en  cot-ton  states  had 
with-drawn  from  the  Un-ion.  Their  claim  was  that  the 
rights  of  a  state  were  high-er  than  those  of  the  Un-ion 
when  it  thought  it  ought  to  do  so. 

Mem-bers  of 
Con-gress  and  oth- 
ers tried  to  set-tie 
the  trou-ble  but  to 
no  a-vail,  and 
there  seemed  no 
way  a-head  but  a 
tri-al  of  the  is-sue 
on  the  bat-tie-field. 
Lin-coln  was  in 
Spring-field  and 
could  do  naught  then,  save  with  his  pen  and  words  of 
ad-vice  to  Bu-chan-an  who  was  then  Pres-i-dent.  With 
great  sad-ness  he  read  what  had  been  done  at  the  South. 
There  was  still  much  to  do  in  Spring-field  in  his 
plans  to  leave  his  law  work,  and  Mr.  Lin-coln  felt  that 
a  great  load  of  care  was  up-on  him,  and  the  task,  which 


THE    LINCOLN    HOME    IN    SPRINGFIELD. 


THE  LIFE  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  73 

in  a  few  brief  months  would  be  his,  was  sure  to  be  more 
even  than  that  which  fell  to  the  first  great  Chief,  George 
Wash-ing-ton.  There  were  times  when  he  spent  whole 
days  in  deep  thought,  si-lent  and  sad. 

Still,  in  the  midst  of  all  this  work,  there  came  times 
when  in  a  light-er  vein  he  would  show  mirth  at  in-ci- 
dents  as  they  came  up.  A  bus-i-ness  trip  had  to  be 
made.  A  group  of  small  girls  was  met  at  the  house  of 
a  friend.  They  gazed  at  the  great  man  as  if  they  would 
speak  to  him.  He  kind-ly  asked  them  if  he  could  help 
them  in  an-y  way.  One  of  them  said  that  she  would 
dear-ly  like  to  have  him  write  his  name  for  her. 

Lin-coln  said  he  saw  oth-er  young  girls  there  and 
thought  that  if  he  wrote  his  name  for  but  one,  the  rest 
would  "  feel  bad-ly." 

The  child  then  told  him  there  were  "  eight  all  told." 
Then,  with  one  of  his  bright  smiles  the  kind  man  asked 
for  eight  slips  of  pa-per  and  pen  and  ink.  He  wrote 
his  name  so  that  each  child  might  have  it  to  take  home 
with  her. 

There  was  a  lit-tle  girl,  that  same  au-tumn,  whose 
home  was  on  the  shores  of  Lake  E-rie.  She  had  a 
por-trait   of   Lin-coln  and  a  pic-ture   of  the  log-cab-in 


74  THE  LIFE    OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

which  he  helped  build  for  his  fa-ther  in  1830.  She  had 
great  pride  in  Mr.  Lin-coln,  and  it  was  her  wish  that  he 
should  look  as  well  as  he  could  So  she  asked  her 
moth-er  if  she  might  write  a  note  to  Mr.  Lin-coln  and 
ask  him  if  he  would  let  his  beard  grow,  for  she  thought 
this  would  make  his  face  more  pleas-ing. 

The  moth-er  thought  this  plan  of  her  child  was  strange, 
but  know-ing  that  she  was  a  strong  Re-pub-li-can,  said 
there  could  be  no  harm  in  writ-ing  such  a  let-ter.  So 
the  let-ter  was  writ-ten  and  sent  to  "  Hon.  A-bra-ham 
Lin-coln,  Esq.,  Spring-field,  Il-li-nois." 

This  young  girl,  whose  name  was  Grace  Be-dell, 
told  Mr.  Lin-coln  how  old  she  was,  and  that  she  thought 
he  would  look  bet-ter,  and  so  that  scores  more  folks 
would  like  him,  if  he  "would  let  his  whis-kers  grow." 
She  said,  too,  that  she  liked  the  "  rail  fence,  in  the  pic- 
ture, a-round  that  cab-in  that  he  helped  his  fa-ther 
make."  Then  she  asked  that  if  he  were  too  bus-y  to 
an-swer  her  let-ter  that  he  would  let  his  own  lit-tle  girl 
re-ply  for  him. 

Mr.  Lin-coln  was  in  his  State-house  room  when  that 
let-ter,  with  scores  of  oth-ers,  came  in.  He  could  but 
smile  at  the  child's  wish,  but  he  took  the  time  to  an-swer 


THE  LIFE  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  75 

at  once,  in  a  brief  note  which  be-gan,  "  Miss  Grace 
Be-dell:  My  dear  lit-tle  Miss."  He  told  her  of  the 
re-ceipt  of  her  "ver-y  a-gree-a-ble  let-ter."  He  said  he 
was  "  sor-ry  to  say  that  he  had  no  lit-tle  daugh-ter," 
but  that  he  "  had  three  sons,  one  sev-en-teen,  one  nine, 
and  one  sev-en  years  of  age."  He  said  he  had  nev-er 
worn  whis-kers,  and  asked  if  folks  would  not  think  it 
sil-ly  to  be-gin,  then,  to  wear  them.  The  note  closed 
with  ;     "  Your  ver-y  sin-cere  well-wish-er,  A.  Lin-coln." 


» <  ♦  »  4 


CHAPTER   VIII. 

IN    THE    PRESIDENTIAL    CHAIR  J    THE    CIVIL    WAR    BEGINS. 

One  of  the  last  things  that  A-bra-ham  Lin-coln  did  ere 
he  said  good  bye  to  his  Spring-field  home  was  to  go 
down  to  see  the  good  old  step-moth-er  who  did  so 
much  for  him  when  he  was  a  poor,  sad  boy.  Proud  in- 
deed, was  she  of  the  lad  she  had  reared  with  so  much 
care,  but  she  felt  that  there  were  hard  days  to  come  to 
him.  She  told  him  that  she  feared  she  should  not  see 
him  a-gain.  She  said  "They  will  kill  you;  I  know 
they  will." 


76  THE  LIFE   OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLA 


Lin-coln  tried  to  cheer  her,  and  told  her  they  would 
not  do  that.  But  she  clung  to  him  with  tears,  and  a 
break-ing  heart.  "  We  must  trust  in  the  Lord,  and 
all  will  be  well,"  said  the  good  man  as  he  bade  his  step- 
moth-er  a  ten-der  fare-well  and  went  a-way. 

It  was  on  Feb.  11,  1861,  that  Lin-coln  left  Spring- 
field for  Wash-ing-ton.  Snow  was  fall-ing  fast  as  Lin- 
coln stood  at  the  rear  of  his  train  to  say  his  last  words. 
A  great  crowd  was  at  the  rail-road  sta-tion.  Men 
stood  si-lent  with  bare  heads  while  he  spoke. 

Six  firm  friends  of  Mr.  Lin-coln  went  with  him  to 
Wash-ing-ton.  Mr.  Lin-coln  was  ver-y  much  af-fect-ed 
when  he  went  in-to  the  car  af-ter  say-ing  good-bye  to 
his  old  home  folks.     Tears  were  in  his  eyes. 

Crowds  were  at  each  sta-tion  a-long  the  route  and 
Mr.  Lin-coln  oft-en  spoke  to  those  who  had  come  there 
to  see  him.  While  talk-ing  at  West-field  Mr.  Lin-coln 
said  that  he  had  a  young  friend  there  who  had  sent  a 
note  to  him,  and  that  if  Grace  Be-dell  were  in  the  sta- 
tior  he  should  like  to  meet  the  child.  It  seems  she  was 
there,  and  the  word  was  passed  on  ;  "  Grace,  Grace, 
the  Pres-i-dent  is  call-ing  for  you  !  "  A  friend  led  her 
through  the  crowd,  and  Mr.  Lin-coln  took  her  by   the 


THE  LIFE   OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  11 

hand  and  kissed  her.  Then  he  said,  with  a  smile. 
"  You  see,  Grace,  that  I  have  let  my  whis-kers  grow  !  " 

The  train  then  rushed  off,  but  a  smile  was  on  Mr. 
Lin-coln's  face,  and  for  a  brief  time  the  weight  of  of-fice 
had  left  him. 

Threats  of  a  sad  sort  were  then  a-broad  in  the  land. 
Foes  said  Lin-coln  should  nev-er  be  made  Pres-i-dent. 
Their  hearts  were  full  of  hate.  They  felt  that  this  man 
would  be  sure  to  en-force  the  laws,  e-ven  a-gainst  those 
who  were  joined  to-geth-er  to  try  to  break  them. 

Lin-coln  was  brave.  He  did  not  fear.  He  felt  that 
the  Lord  was  on  his  side  and  that  He  would  give  him 
strength  to  do  all  the  work  that  he  had  planned  for 
him.  Though  he  did  not  doubt  this,  yet,  both  he  and 
his  friends  felt  that  it  would  not  be  right  to  risk  his  life 
at  that  time,  so  they  did  not  take  the  route  at  first 
thought  of,  but  went  by  a  way,  and  at  a  time,  which 
would  make  all  safe. 

Thus  the  train  from  Phil-a-del-phi-a  rolled  in-to  Wash- 
ing-ton ear-ly  one  morn-ing  and  Lin-coln  was  safe,  and 
must,  in-deed,  have  felt  the  truth  of  those  Bi-ble  words, 
"He  shall  give  His  an-gels  charge  o-ver  thee  to  keep 
thee  in  all  thy  ways." 


78  THE  LIFE    OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

On  the  Fourth  of  March,  1861,  A-bra-ham  Lin-coln 
stood  on  a  plat-form,  built  for  that  day,  on  the  east 
front  of  the  cap-i-tol,  and  took  the  oath  of  of- flee.  He 
laid  his  right  hand  on  the  Bi-ble.  A  hush  fell  up-on 
the  vast  throng  as  he  said,  af-ter  Chief-jus-tice  Ta-ney, 
these  words :  "  I,  A-bra-ham  Lin-coln,  do  sol-emn-ly 
swear  that  I  will  faith-ful-ly  ex-e-cute  the  of-fice  of 
Pres-i-dent  of  the  U-ni-ted  States,  and  will,  to  the 
best  of  my  a-bil-i-ty,  pre-serve,  pro-tect,  and  de-fend 
the  Con-sti-tu-tion  of  the  U-ni-ted  States." 

Then  came  the  can-non  sa-lute  while  cheer  on  cheer 
rent  the  air. 

Lin-coln  read  his  in-au-gu-ral  ad-dress  as  Pres-i-dent 
of  the  U-ni-ted  States.  His  old  riv-al,  Doug-las  was 
near  him,  and  to  show  his  friend-ly  and  loy-al  heart, 
held  Lin-coln's  hat. 

Lin-coln's  speech  was  a  grand  one.  He  did  not 
boast  nor  tell  what  great  things  he  would  do.  He 
spoke  as  would  a  fa-ther  to  way-ward  chil-dren,  and 
told  those  who  were  try-ing  to  break  up  the  Un-ion 
that  their  move  would  bring  ru-in  to  the  Na-tion.  He 
asked  them  to  stop,  and  turn  back  while  there  was  time. 

In  sad-ness  he  told   them   that  it  was  not  right  for 


THE  LIFE  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  79 


an-y  to  try  to  des-troy  the  Un-ion ;  that  it  was  his 
sworn  du-ty  to  pre-serve  it.  This  speech  did  much 
good,  but  most-ly  where  there  were  folks  who  had  not 
known  which  side  to  take.  These  saw,  then,  that  the 
Pres-i-dent  was  bound  by  his  oath  to  do  his  dut-y. 

No  Chief  of  the  U-ni-ted  States,  when  he  took  his 
chair,  had  so  hard  a  task  be-fore  him  as  Lin-coln  had. 
Sev-en  States  had  gone  out  of  the  Un-ion,  made  a  start 
at  a  new  gov-ern-ment,  and  found  a  pres-i-dent  and  a 
vice-pres-i-dent  for  them-selves.  Some  of  the  folks  in 
oth-er  states  were  mak-ing  plans  to  leave  the  Un-ion. 
The  peo-ple  of  the  far  South  laid  hold  of  Un-ion  forts, 
ships,  guns,  and  post-of-fi-ces.  Some  men  who  had 
held  high  posts  in  the  ar-my  and  na-vy  left  the  Un-ion 
and  gave  their  help  to  the  oth-er  side.  They  had  sent 
out  the  news  to  the  world  that  they  would  have  the 
name  of  the  "  Con-fed-er-ate  States  of  A-mer-i-ca,"  and 
that  their  pres-i-dent's  name  was  Jef-fer-son  Davis. 

How  to  save  the  Un-ion,  bring  back  all  the  states, 
make  the  North  and  South  friends  once  more  were 
themes  of  the  day.  These  thoughts  hung  like  a  weight 
o-ver  Lin-coln  as  he  paced  his  room  at  night,  and  as  he 
talked  with  the  men  he  had  with  him.   He  did  not  wish 


80 


THE  LIFE   OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 


to  de-clare  war.  He  must,  he  thought,  work  for  peace, 
This  he  did  till  he  saw  war  must  come,  but  he  made  up 
his    mind    that  the  first  act  that  brought  a-bout  war 

should  not  come  from 
him  but  from  those 
whose  wish  was  to 
break  up  the  Un-ion. 
At  last  the  foe  struck 
the  first  blow. 

It  was  on  a  spring 
day,  the  twelfth  of 
A-pril,  1 86 1,  that  the 
first  gun  was  fired  in 
Charles-ton  har-bor 
up-on  the  Un-ion  flag 
on  Fort  Sum-ter. 
The  call  was  sound- 
ed. The  great  heart 
of  the    North  grew  hot  with  shame  and  rage. 

"  What !  De-grade  our  coun-try's  flag  ? "  they  cried. 
"'Tis  the  flag  for  which  our  fa-ther's  fought  and  died !" 
"  We  will  give  the  last  drop  of  our  blood  for  it !  We 
will  leave  our  trades,  our  homes  and  dear  ones,  and   fly 


JEFFERSON    DAVIS 


THE  LIFE   OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  el 

to  put  down  the  foe  who  has  dared  to  strike  a  blow 
at  it ! " 

But  in  Charles-ton,  S.  C.  the  folks  were  wild  with 
joy.  The  Gov-ern-or  of  the  state,  Pick-ens,  made  a 
speech  from  the  bal-co-ny  of  a  ho-tel.  He  said,  "Thank 
God,  the  day  has  come !  The  war  is  o-pen,  and  we 
will  con-quer  or  pe-rish.  We  have  de-feat-ed  twenty 
mil-lions,  and  we  have  hum-bled  their  proud  flag  of 
stars  and  stripes."  There  was  much  more  talk  in  the 
same  vein. 

In  the  North  men  wept  who  ne'er  had  wept  be-fore. 
It  seemed  as  if  the  worst  had  come.  "But  Lin-coln, 
our  brave  Lin-coln,  what  will  he  do  now  ? "  they  asked. 
A-bra-ham  Lin-coln  knew  just  what  to  do.  He  did  not 
need  to  be  told.  He  knew  that  the  peo-ple  would  de- 
cide the  mat-ter  and  to  them  he  turned.  He  talked 
with  his  men  near  him,  his  "  Cab-i-net,"  and  said  that 
75,000  of  "the  peo-ple"  would  come  to  his  aid  and 
quell  this  thing.     Four  times  that  num-ber  came. 

The  par-ties,  "  Re-pub-li-can  "  and  "  Dem-o-crat,"  for 
the  time  were  both  much  of  one  mind,  "  For  the  Union," 
side  by  side  to  "  fall  in  "  and  march  south  and  save  it. 

One  state   had  troops  all  rea-dy  to  start.       It   was 


82  THE  LIFE   OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

Mas-sa-chu-setts.  Her  Gov-ern-or,  in  i860,  N.  P. 
Banks,  had  long  seen  the  trend  of  things,  the  need  of 
men  that  must  come,  so  his  sol-diers  were  a-ble  to  leave 
at  the  first  call  for  help.  On  April  19,  the  Sixth  Reg-i- 
ment  fought  its  way  through  the  streets  of  Bal-ti-more, 
and  reached  Wash-ing-ton  in  time  to  aid  Lin-coln  in 
hold-ing  the  cap-i-tol. 

In  ev-er-y  cit-y  and  town  there  were  drum  beats  and 
the  cry  of  " To  arms !  To  arms!"  Men  were  in  haste 
to  give  their  help  to  the  great  Chief,  A-bra-ham  Lin- 
coln, whose  call  they  had  heard. 

Ste-phen  A.  Doug-las,  now  that  the  very  life  of  the 
Un-ion  was  a  stake,  left  no  doubt  as  to  where  he  stood. 
He  made  it  plain-ly  known  that  he  was  "  For  the 
Un-ion,"  and  he  led  the  loy-al  Dem-o-crats  of  the  North 
to  up-hold  the  Un-ion,  and  they  went  glad-ly  with  him 
to  the  task. 

Much  as  the  men  who  led  the  South  to  try  to  go  out 
of  the  Union  were  to  blame,  it  was  well  known  that 
man-y  in  the  South  were  loath  to  go  and  did  so  on-ly 
when  their  states  said  they  must. 

Some  of  the  best  gen-er-als  on  the  side  of  the  South, 
such  as  Lee,  were  of  those  un-will-ing  men.       Each    of 


THE  LIFE   OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 


83 


them  fought  the  North  be-cause  his  own  state  told  him 
to.     The  bad  "  doc-trine  of  State  Rights,"  brought  this 


DEFENCES    OF   WASHINGTON. 


a-bout.  Un-der  it  the  state  was  held  to  have  a  claim 
up-on  those  who  lived  in  it  high-er  than  the  claim  which 
the  na-tion  had  up-on  them. 

The    men    who    stood  for    the  cause  of  the    South 


84  THE  LIFE  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

burned  the  bridg-es  on  the  rail-roads  lead-ing  north 
from  Bal-ti-more  so  that  no  more  troops  might  reach 
Wash-ing-ton  from  that  side. 

Cit-i-zens,  un-der  the  com-mand  of  Maj-or  Dav-id 
Hun-ter,  kept  guard  o-ver  the  White  House  and 
Treas-u-ry. 

All  through  the  long,  sad  hours  Pres-i-dent  Lin-coln 
stood  at  the  helm  and  was  the  pi-lot  who,  un-der  the 
Lord,  took  the  Ship  of  State  through  the  most  aw-ful 
storm  in  which  she  had  ever  sailed. 

It  was,  in-deed,  a  glad  hour  when  the  8th  Mas-sa- 
chu-setts  reg-i-ment  and  the  7th  New  York  reached 
Wash-ing-ton.     This  made  the  Cap-i-tol  safe. 

In  the  West,  at  Il-li-nois,  troops  from  Chi-ca-go  took 
pos-ses-sion  of  Cai-ro. 

So,  by  the  prompt  com-ing  of  troops  to  Wash-ing-ton 
and  of  those  troops  in  the  West  keep-ing  charge  at 
Cairo,  the  plans  of  the  South'  ern  foe  were  checked. 


THE   LIFE    OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  85 


CHAPTER    IX. 

EARLY    BATTLES    OF    THE    WAR. 

The  foe  moved  their  cap-i-tal  from  Mont-gom-er-y,  Ala. 
to  Rich-mond,  Va.  and  the  first  bat-tie  of  weight  was  to 
lie  be-tween  the  two  cap-i-tals.  The  folks  at  the  North 
thought  the  war  would  be  a  short  one.  Most  of  the 
North-ern  vol-un-teers  had  been  called  out  for  but  three 
months,  so  it  was  thought  by  some  that  a  bat-tie  must 
be  fought  ere  that  time  came  to  an  end.  The  press  at 
the  North  made  a  loud  call  for  a  "  for-ward  move- 
ment." From  day  to  day  there  was  the  cry  of  "  On  to 
Rich-mond  !" 

This  hot  speed  was  not  the  wish  of  Gen.  Scott,  then 
Com-man-der-in-chief  of  all  the  U.  S.  troops.  He  said 
it  would  be  "death  to  our  cause."  It  has  since  been 
thought  that  if  the  men  in  the  North  had  been  more 
slow  to  move,  the  first  great  loss  would  not  have  been 
theirs. 

It  was  on  the  21st,  of  Ju-ly,  1861,  that  the  bat-tie  of 
Bull    Run  was  fought.       Gen-er-al  Mc-Do-well  moved 


86 


THE  LIFE    OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 


towards  Rich-mond.  The  foe  was  led  by  Gens. 
Jo-seph  E.  John-ston  and  Beau-re-gard.  The  bat-tie 
was  a  sharp  one  and  the  loss  large.  At  just  the  right 
mo-ment  the  foe  had  fresh  troops  sent  to  help  them  and 
thus    gained   the  day.     Af-ter  a  hard  light,  the  Un-ion 


MARCHING    TO    BULL   RUN, 


for-ces    had    to    give   up.     They  fled   back  in  haste   to 
WasL-ing-ton. 

Sher-man  was  Col-onel  of  a  reg-i-ment  at  Bull  Run. 
Though  he  did  his  part  well,  he  had  a  fear  that  the 
Pres-i-dent  would  find  fault  with  him  for  the  great  loss 
at    that    bat-tie.      He  felt  that  he  had  done  all  he  could 


THE  LIFE   OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  87 

with  men  who  had  been  rushed  in-to  a  fight  ere  they 
had  had  time  to  learn  the  art  of  war.  Lin-coln  knew 
that  Sher-man  had  done  his  best  with  what  he  had. 
He  knew  that  Sher-man  was  "  val-u-a-ble  man,"  so  he 
at  once  made  him  a  Brig-a-dier  Gen-er-al,  sent  him  to 
Lou-is-ville,  Ken-tuc-ky,  and  put  him  in  charge  of  a 
large  force  of  troops. 

The  bat-tie  of  Bull  Run,  it  has  been  said,  was  fought 
to  please  "the  pol-i-ti-cians."  It  was  the  only  time  the 
Pres-i-dent  yield-ed  to  the  pub-lie  clam-or,  and  he  was 
al-ways  sor-ry  that  he  then  did  so. 

In  a  few  days  af-ter  the  bat-tie  of  Bull  Run  the  Pres- 
i-dent  went  out  to  see  the  sol-diers.  He  made  a  kind 
speech,  and  told  them  to  "  cheer  up,"  for  he  "  knew  that 
bet-ter  days  were  com-ing." 

Pres-i-dent  Lin-coln  felt  that  while  Gen.  Scott  had  a 
ver-y  sound  head  and  had  done  great  good  in  his  long 
years  of  work  in  the  ar-my,  he  had  come  to  the  time 
when  age  had  be-gun  to  "tell"  up-on  him.  But  what 
man  could  he  put  in  his  place?  Gen.  Mc-Do-well  had 
met  with  de-feat.  Gen.  Pat-ter-son,  too,  had  failed.  Up 
to  that  date  the  on-ly  off-i-cer  who  had  won  was  Gen. 
Mc-Clel-lan,     in     charge    of    O-hi-o  troops    in     West 


88 


THE  LIFE  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 


Vir-gi-nia.  Gen.  Scott  spoke  to  Pres-i-dent  Lin-coln  in 
fa-vor  of  this  young  man,  Mc-Clel-lan,  and,  as  it  was  not 
ea-sy    to    find   just    the    one    need-ed    at    that    hour, 

Mc-Clel-lan,  was  kept 
at  Wash-ing-ton  to 
or-gan-ize  the  troops 
com-ing  in  to  that 
cit-y  and  make  all 
read-y  for  a  strong 
cam-paign. 

The  fine  fall   days 
were  go-ing  by  and 
Mc-Clel-lan,    though, 
he  seemed  to  be  get- 
ting rea-dy  for  work, 
did  not  bring  a-bout 
what    folks    thought 
he  would.     They  be- 
gan to  ask  why  the  ar-my  did  not  move.       Word    was 
sent  North  each  night  that  it  was  "  All  qui-et  a-long  the 
Po-to-mac ! " 

Ere  the  end  of  Sep-tem-ber  came  it  was  clear-ly  made 
known  to  the  Pres-i-dent  that  the  friends  of  the  Un-ion 


GENERAL   WINFIELD    SCOTT 


THE  LIFE  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  89 

cause  felt  that  some  of  the  lead-ers  were  at  fault.  The 
Pres-i-dent,  as  a  boy,  had  made  him-self  mas-ter  of 
gram-mar,  law,  sur-vey-ing,  and  oth-er  things,  and  now 
he  made  a  close  stud-y  of  war  and  how  to  fight  great 
bat-ties.  While  he  was  a  help  to  Mc-Clel-lan,  yet  he 
saw,  at  last,  that  his  own  plans  were  best,  and  so,  in 
time,  it  was  proved  to  all  that  Mc-Clel-lan  was  wrong 
and  Lin-coln  was  right. 

Not  a-lone  in  war  schemes  but  in  others  the  hand  and 
head  of  Lin-coln  oft-en  proved  bet-ter  than  those  of 
men  who  had  been  brought  up  to  such  work.  Lin- 
coln's way  with  for-eign  lands,  some  of  whose  ru-lers 
were  friend-ly  to  the  South  and  want-ed  it  to  win,  was 
thought  to  be  just  right.  Then  the  way  Lin-coln  got 
vast  sums  to  car-ry  on  the  war,  and  the  part  he  thought 
it  wise  for  the  na-vy  to  take  in  the  great  strife,  won 
praise  for  him.  These  things  were  all  un-der  Lin-coln's 
eye  and  had  his  close  care. 

As  time  went  on  the  whole  North  learned  to  look  to 
Lin-coln,  and  de-pend  up-on  him  for  help  in  dark  days 
and  wise  work  in  bright  times.  When  the  North  felt 
they  could  not  win,  Lin-coln  said,     "  We  shall  win  !  " 

While  a  large  force  of  men  was  in  arms  not  much 


90  THE  LIFE    OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

had  been  done  by  Un-ion  Gen-er-als.  Mc-Clel-lan's 
great  ar-my  grew  less  and  less.  Hordes  of  men  were  ill. 
Mc-Clel-lan  had  no  plan  for  his  troops  to  move.  Hal- 
leck  was  in  charge  in  Mis-sou-ri  and  Gen.  Bu-ell  in 
Ken-tuc-ky 

Pres-i-dent  Lin-coln  saw  that  a  un-ion  must  be 
brought  a-bout  be-tween  the  moves  of  these  three  lead- 
ers. He  wrote  to  them,  but  they  did  not  care  to  do 
what  he  thought  best. 

U-lys-ses  S.  Grant,  though  a  West  Point  man  who 
had  fought  in  the  war  with  Mex-i-co  in  1843,  had  left 
the  ar-my  and  gone  to  a  small  farm  near  St.  Lou-is.  He 
was  poor,  but  he  built  a  small  house  of  hewn  logs  for  his 
fam-i-ly,  did  his  own  work  on  the  land,  and  lived  a  life 
of  peace. 

A  chance  came  to  go  to  Ga-le-na,  in  the  State  of  Il-li- 
nois.  There  Grant  was  a  clerk  in  a  store  where  they 
sold  hides.  There  he  was  when  the  war  broke  out,  and 
the  South  and  the  North,  which  had  been  as  one,  were 
now  two,  and  full  of  hate. 

Four  days  af-ter  Lin-coln's  call  for  troops  went 
through  the  land,  U.  S.  Grant  be-gan  to  drill  some  of 
the  men  in  his  place  in  the  use  of  the  gun.       In    a    few 


THE  LIFE  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  91 

days  he  set  off  with  them  for  Spring-field,  111.  From 
there  he  wrote  to  a  man  who  held  a  high  post  at  Wash- 
ing-ton and  told  him  that  he  would  like  to  be  of  use 
and  help  save  the  land  from  its  foe. 

No  word  came  back.  But  Grant  kept  on,  staid  in 
the  same  cit-y,  and  gave  his  time  to  the  drill  of  all  the 
troops  he  could  find. 

In  five  weeks'  time  Cap-tain  Grant  was  made  Col-o- 
nel  and  sent  off  to  the  seat  of  war  at  the  head  of  the 
21st  Il-li-nois.  He  went  first  to  Mis-sou-ri  and  then  to 
Cai-ro.  Soon,  with-out  ask-ing  for  the  post,  he  was 
made  Brig-a-dier-Gen-er-al. 

A  force  of  the  foe,  led  by  Gen.  Polk,  went  up  the 
Mis-sis-sip-pi  from  Mem-phis  and  took  the  high  bluffs 
at  Co-lum-bus,  in  Ken-tuc-ky. 

A  man  from  Co-lum-bus  said,  "The  Con-fed-er-ates  are 
get-ting  read-y  to  seize  Pa-du-cah  ! "  Pa-du-cah  was  a 
place  which  would  be  of  great  worth  to  the  side  which 
first  got  hold  of  it.  If  the  guns  of  the  foe  were  put 
there  they  would  stop  steam-boats  from  pass-ing  that 
point. 

Gen.  Grant  saw  that  he  must  act  at  once.  There  was 
no  time  in  which  to  wait  for  or-ders  from   the   head  of 


92  THE  LIFE  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

the  troops  in  the  West.  The  ver-y  next  morn-ing  the 
folks  who  lived  in  Pa-du-cah  were  great-ly  sur-prised  to 
see  a  fleet  of  steam-boats  full  of  Un-ion  troops  made 
fast  at  the  wharf  The  na-tives  had  been  told  that  the 
for-ces  of  the  South  were  to  be  there  that  day,  and  they 
had  gone  to  the  quay  to  greet  Gen.  Thom-as  who  was 
to  lead  those  troops. 

Grant's  quick  move  gave  Ken-tuc-ky  to  the  Un-ion 
cause  and  much  cheer  to  Pres-i-dent  Lin-coln. 

The  first  fight  of  the  war  in  which  Grant  took  the 
lead  was  af-ter  he  moved  his  troops  from  Pa-du-cah 
down  to  Hun-ter's  Point,  near  Bel-mont. 

Pres-i-dent  Lin-coln  strove  to  have  a  un-i-ty  of  ac-tion 
be-tween  his  gen-er-als.  Mc-Clel-lan  had  a  great  force 
at  hand.  He  did  naught  with  it  but  drill  and  wait. 
Hal-leck  had  charge  in  Mis-sou-ri  and  Bu-ell  in  Ken- 
tuc-ky.     They  had  noth-ing  to  do  with  each  oth-er. 

Pres-i-dent  Lin-coln  told  Hal-leck  to  men-ace  Co-lum- 
bus  on  the  Mis-sis-sip-pi  and  Bu-ell  at  the  same  time  to 
move  up-on  the  force  un-der  John-ston,  at  Bowl-ing 
Green  m  cen-tral  Ken-tuc-ky.  These  men  did  not  do  as 
the  Pres-i-dent  had  told  them  to,  and  they  did  not  e-ven 
an-swer  his  let-ter  or  or-der.       Then    it    was    that    the 


THE  LIFE  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 


93 


BATTLE    OF    BELMONT. 


Pres-i-dent  felt  that  the  three  com-mand-ers  were  not 
do-ing  what  they  ought  to  do,  in  fact,  that  they  were 
"  three  do-noth-ings." 

There  were  bad  times  in  eas-tern  Ten-nes-see,  where 
the  folks  had  giv-en  out  that  they  were  for  the  Un-ion. 
The  foe  in  Geor-gi-a  and  Tex-as  took  man-y  of  them 
and  put  them  in  jail  for  so  do-ing.     Those  who  got  off 


94  THE  LIFE   OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

told  tales  of  great  dis-tress.  Lin-coln  wanted  Bu-ell  to 
help  them  but  he  would-n't. 

In  the  East  there  was  much  talk  of  Mc-Clel-lan's 
long  wait.  The  Pres-i-dent  was  ver-y  pa-tient,  too  pa- 
tient folks  said.  A-gain  and  a-gain  Lin-coln  went  to 
Mc-Clel-lan  to  get  him  to  start  work  with  his  large 
for-ces. 

In  the  West  there  were  two  men  who  felt  that  they 
could  do  a  good  stroke  for  the  Un-ion  if  they  had  leave 
to  do  it.  One  of  these  men  was  Com-mo-dore  Foote. 
The  oth-er  was  Gen-er-al  Grant. 


CHAPTER   X. 

GRANT  WINS  IN  THE  WEST,  AND  FARRAGUT  AT 

NEW  ORLEANS. 

It  was  on  Feb.  2,  1862,  that  the  first  great  move  was 
made  af-ter  Bull  Run.  This  broke  the  line  of  the  foe 
at  the  West  and  gave  the  Mis-sis-sip-pi  Riv-er,  a-bove 
Vicks-burg,  in-to  the  hands  of  the  North. 

Com.  Foote,  with  four  gun-boats,   and   Gen.   Grant 
with    his   troops,   moved  a-gainst   Fort   Hen-ry  on  the 


THE  LIFE  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 


95 


Ten-nes-see  Riv-er,  and  on  Feb.  2d,    made  it  give   up. 
A  week  went  by  and  on  the  Cum-ber-land  Riv-er,  which 


r,        "O 


* 


(^     © 


THE    ATTACK    ON    FORT    DONELSON. 


there  runs  near  the  Ten-nes-see  Riv-er,  an-oth-er  fort  of 
the  foe,  Don-el-son,  twelve  miles  from  Fort  Hen-ry,  was 
tak-en  by  the  same  men.  There  was  a  stiff  fight  at  Fort 
Don-el-son  and  2300  of  Un-ion  sol-diers  fell.       At  last 


96  TJSjl   LIFE   OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

that  fort  was  tak-en  and  15000  pris-on-ers  with  it.  All 
the  troops  of  the  foe  then  had  to  leave  the  State  of 
Ken-tuc-ky.  All  the  friends  of  the  Un-ion  cause 
were  full  of  joy. 

Just  in  the  midst  of  the  great  good  news  from  the 
West  came  a  thing  most  sad  to  the  hearts  of  the  Presi- 
dent's fam-i-ly.  One  dear  boy  fell  ill.  It  was  Wil-lie 
Lin-coln. 

While  full  of  the  weight  of  cares  for  his  land,  there 
came  nights  and  days  when  it  fell  to  Lin-coln's  lot  to 
have  to  watch  the  slow  steps  of  death.  "  It  is  the  hard-est 
tri-al  of  my  life,"  said  the  sad  fa-ther.  At  last  the  dear 
child  was  gone.  One  said  to  the  Pres-i-dent,  "  A  vast 
num-ber  pray  for  you  to-day." 

Mr.  Lin-coln  said  "  I  am  glad  of  that.  I  want  them 
to  pray  for  me.  I  need  their  pray-ers ;  and  I  will  try 
to  go  to  God  with  my  sor-row.  I  wish  I  had  a  child- 
like faith.  I  trust  God  will  give  it  to  me.  My  moth-er 
had  it.  She  died  man-y  years  a-go.  I  re-mem-ber  her 
pray-ers ;  they  have  al-ways  fol-lowed  me.  They  have 
clung  to  me  through  life." 

A  new  style  of  boat,  a  small  queer  craft,  was  brought 
forth  by  the  war.     She  did  a  great  work  in  H amp-ton 


THE  LIFE   OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  97 

Roads  when  ships  of  wood  of  the  North,  as  they  lay  at 
an-chor  there,  had  gone  down,  when  shot  at  and 
"  rammed  "  by  a  new  sort  of  foe. 

The  Se-cret-a-ry  of  the  Na-vy  at  that  time  was  Mr. 
Welles.  He  heard  that  the  foe  were  to  raise  the  hull 
of  the  "  Mer-ri-mac,"  a  fine  craft  which  the  foe  had  hurt 
and  sunk  at  Nor-folk.  They  would  raise  the  ship,  cov- 
er it  with  i-ron,  and  thus  make  a  ves-sel  which  would 
be  of  far  more  use  in  war  than  an-y  thing  then  built. 

The  As-sist-ant-Sec'y  of  the  Na-vy,  Mr.  Gus-ta-vus 
V.  Fox,  went  to  talk  with  the  Pres-i-dent.  Lin-coln 
spoke  to  him  a-bout  the  new  craft  and  said : 

"  We  must  not  let  the  foe  get  a-head  of  us  in  such  an 
im-por-tant  thing  as  pla-ting  ves-sels  with  i-ron." 

This  thought  sank  deep  in-to  the  mind  of  Mr.  Fox, 
and  plans  were  soon  set  on  foot  to  see  what  could  be 
done  to  get  some  "  i-ron-clads."  Capt.  Er-ics-son  made 
a  mod-el  of  a  craft  ne'er  be-fore  seen.  It  had  a  hull 
un-der  wa-ter,  and  an  i-ron-clad  tur-ret  which  could  be 
turned. 

The  Pres-i-dent  was  glad  of  Er-ics-son's  work,  took 
the  plans,  and  eight  months  lat-er  the  worth  of  the  boat 
made  from  them  was  seen   in   the  great  fight  be-tween 


98  THE  LIFE  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

the  Mer-ri-mac  and  the  Mon-i-tor  at  Hamp-ton  Roads. 
The  "Mer-ri-mac"  thought  she  would  have  full  swing 
and  crush  all  the  ships  of  the  Un-ion.  She  did  some 
sad  work  both  in  the  loss  of  ships  and  men,  and  she 
would  have  made  an  end  of  all,  had  there  not,  at  mid- 
night, come  up-on  the  scene,  straight  down  from  New 
York,  John  Er-ics-son's  lit-tle  i-ron  ves-sel,  the  "  Mon-i- 
tor."  From  that  time  i-ron  ships,  in  place  of  those 
made  of  wood,  were  made  for  war  use. 

In  the  West,  Grant,  when  he  got  through  with  Don- 
el-son,  went  up  the  Ten-nes-see  to  take  Cor-inth  in  North 
Mis-sis-sip-pi.  At  that  place  man-y  rail-roads  met. 
Fresh  troops  had  been  sent  from  the  East,  and  as  Grant 
moved  on  with  them  he  left  some  at  points  where  boats 
could  land.  He,  him-self,  came  to  a  halt  on  the  west 
bank  of  the  stream,  at  Shi-loh,  with  30,000  to  40,000 
men.  This  was  a  good  place  for  him,  for  from  here  he 
could  keep  watch  on  the  rail-road  that  went  through 
the  South  and  thus  vex  the  foe  then  in  great  force  at 
Cor-inth. 

The  foe  had,  at  its  head,  Gen.  A.  S.  John-ston  and 
it  was  his  wish  to  crush  Grant  ere  Bu-ell  could  send 
him  more  troops. 


THE  LIFE  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 


99 


THE    CHURCH    AT    SHILOH. 


Shi-loh,  a  small  log  church,  was  on  a  ridge  a  few 
miles  back  from  Pitts-burg  Land-ing.  The  troops  that 
were  to  be  put  in  front  had  their  lines  drawn  up  to  face 
the  Cor-inth  road,  for  by  that  route  the  foe  must  come. 
Gen.  Sher-man  had  charge  of  the  men  on  that  line. 

It  was  on  Ap-ril  6th,  1862,  that  Gen.  A.  S.  John- 
ston made  a  fierce  at-tack  on  the  lines  at  Shi-loh. 
There  was  great  loss  on  both  sides.  Sher-man  was 
twice  shot,  while  horse  af-ter  horse  fell  un-der  him,  but 
he  stuck  to  his  work,  and  kept  up  the  hearts  of  his  men. 

The  next  day  the  fight  went  on  a-gain  and  ground 
was  won  and  lost  on  both  sides.  New  troops,  which 
had  come  in  the  night  to  the  boys  in  blue,  gave  them 
much  hope  and  did  fine  work.       At    last  it  was  push, 


100 


THE  LIFE  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 


push,  the  foe  back  so  that  they  could  gain  no  more 
ground.  This  went  on,  till,  at  three  o'clock  the  cry  of 
"  Charge ! "  rang  out  up-on  the  air.  With  loud  cheers, 
and  their  guns  held  in  front  of  them,  the  Un-ion  troops 


THE    LAST    CHARGE    AT    SHILOH. 


made  a  bold  brave  dash  and  drove  the  foe  from  the 
field. 

The  loss  was  great  on  both  sides.  When  the  foe 
lost  their  lead-er,  Gen.  A.  S.  John-ston,  they  lost  heart, 
and  be-ing  much  worn  by  hours  of  dire  work,  had  to 
give  up. 

Af-ter  Shi-loh,  a  move   was  made  a-gainst   Cor-inth, 


THE  LIFE   OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  10l 

a-bout  22  miles  off.  Word  had  gone  forth  that  Beau- 
re-gard  had  a  large  force  of  South-ern  troops  with  him 
at  that  place,  but  when  the  Un-ion  ar-my  came  close, 
the  foe  fled  from  it,  and  left  most  of  it  in  flames.  When 
the  Un-ion  troops  came,  it  was  found  that  a  brave  show 
had  been  made  with  a  lot  of  old  guns  made  of  wood,  in 
the  place  of  the  i-ron  sort  which  could  do  harm. 

The  Un-ion  cause,  by  this  last  step,  held  the  Mis-sis- 
sip-pi  Riv-er  as  far  down  as  Vicks-burg. 

Pres-i-dent  Lin-coln's  heart  was  glad  at  the  strong 
work  in  the  West,  the  news  of  which  came  to  him  but 
a  few  weeks  af-ter  he  had  heard  from  the  South  that 
Ad-mir-al  Far-ra-gut  and  Gen.  But-ler  held  the  cit-y  of 
New  Or-leans. 

Far-ra-gut  then  went  up  the  Mis-sis-sip-pi  as  far  as 
Vicks-burg  and  it  was  thought  then  that  the  whole  riv- 
er would  soon  be  held  by  Un-ion  for-ces. 

The  gains  by  the  boys  in  blue  at  that  time  made  a 
stir  in  the  South  and  then  it  was  that  each  man  who 
could  bear  arms  had  to  take  part  in  the  war. 

The  men  who  led  the  troops  of  the  South  did  strong 
work  for  their  cause.  In  1861  there  were  fights  big  and 
small  and  most  of  these  were  won   by  the   South.       In 


102 


THE  LIFE  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 


SOUTHERN    TROOPS     LEAVING    CORINTH 


1862  the  war  went  on  and  the  North  won  some  hard 
fights,  though  at  times  there  were  great  loss-es  and  dark 
days.  The  South  bore  up  well,  and  though  crops  were 
poor,  and  they  could  not  get  goods,  still  they  fought  as 
brave-ly  as  ev-er,  and  felt  that  they  should  at  last  win. 
In  Vir-gin-ia,  the  foe  had  some  grand  men  to  lead 
them,  and  for  a  time  it  seemed  as  if  they  must   win. 


THE  LIFE   OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  103 

1  hey  were  bound  to-geth-er  with  strong  ties,  and  heart, 
head,  and  hand,  each,  did  its  best. 

When  Lin-coln  came  to  be  Pres-i-dent  it  was  well 
known  that  he  had  a  great  dis-like  to  sla-ver-y.  But 
the  war,  as  he  said,  time  af-ter  time,  was  "  not  fought 
to  put  down  sla-ver-y  but  to  save  the  Un-ion."  At  the 
North  man-y  found  fault  with  Lin-coln  be-cause  he  did 
not  make  haste  to  set  the  slaves  free.  The  Pres-i-dent 
plain-ly  said,  "  If  I  could  save  the  Un-ion,  though  I  did 
not  free  a  slave  I  would  do  it.  Still,  in  my  own  heart 
it  is  my  wish,  that  all  men,  in  all  lands,  should  be  free." 
Lin-coln  tried  hard  to  keep  the  bor-der  states  friend-ly 
to  the  Un-ion  cause.  One  way  that  would  have  made 
them  foes  would  have  been  to  free  the  slaves  at  once. 

One  day,  while  sail-ing  down  the  Po-to-mac  Riv-er, 
en  route  to  the  ar-my  for  a  vis-it,  the  Pres-i-dent  wrote 
out  some  thoughts  on  this  theme  which  had  been  in  his 
mind  for  a  long  time.  Then,  when  Con-gress  had 
made  an  end  of  its  work,  af-ter  hav-ing  passed  an  act 
"  taking  a-way  the  prop-er-ty  "  of  the  foe,  there  was  a 
meet-ing  of  the  cab-i-net,  made  up  of  men  who  were  a 
help  to  the  Pres-i-dent. 

Slaves  were  "  prop-er-ty"  and   as  prop-er-ty  was  to  be 


104  THE  LIFE  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

seized,  slaves,  of  course,  could  be  tak-en.  They  were  at 
that  time  at  work  as  team-sters  and  on  forts.  Why, 
then,  would  it  not  be  a  good  time  to  give  them  their 
free-dom  ?  With  this  ques-tion  in  his  mind,  the  Presi- 
dent went  to  his  desk  and  took  from  it  a  pa-per  which 
he  then  read  to  his  "  cab-i-net."  It  said;  "On  and  af- 
ter the  first  day  of  Jan-u-a-ry,  1863,  all  slaves  with- 
in a-ny  state  or  states  where  the  con-sti-tu-tion-al 
au-thor-i-ty  of  the  U-ni-ted  States  shall  not  be  re-cog- 
nized, sub-mit-ted  to,  and  main-tained,  shall  thence- 
for-ward  and  for-ev-er  be  free." 

The  Pres-i-dent  told  those  to  whom  he  had  read  his 
"draft"  that  he  had  not  called  them  to  ask  their  ad-vice 
but  to  place  the  mat-ter  be-fore  them. 

The  wise  Se-cret-a-ry  Sew-ard  said  that  though  he 
was  in  fa-vor  of  such  a  draft,  he  thought  the  time  was 
not  ripe  for  it.  He  thought  it  would  be  best  to  wait 
un-til  the  troops  had  won  more  fights.  It  was  then  de- 
ci-ded  that  at  least  some  months  should  go  by  ere  this 
"  draft "  should  be  made  known. 


THE  LIFE   OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  105 


CHAPTER   XL 

ANTIETAM,    VICKSBURG,    GETTYSBURG. 

It  is  true  that  while  good  strokes  were  made  in  the 
West,  the  East  did  not  do  her  part  to  put  down  the 
foe  as  soon  as  she  might  have  done,  and  this  was  laid  to 
lead-ers,  for  the  troops  were  brave  and  read-y  to  fight 
when  they  had  a  chance. 

What  was  called  "  The  Pen-in-su-lar  Cam-paign " 
made  a  start  'twixt  the  York  Riv-er  and  the  James 
Riv-er,  on  land  which  forms  a  pen-in-su-la. 

Here  through  the  spring  and  sum-mer  of  1862,  Mc- 
Clel-lan  held  large  for-ces.  There  was  much  fight-ing, 
and  at  one  time  the  Un-ion  for-ces  were  with-in  eight 
miles  of  Rich-mond,  but  in  the  end  they  had  to  fall  back 
and  with-draw  from  the  Pen-in-su-la. 

Pres-i-dent  Lin-coln  at  length  felt  that  Mc-Clel-lan 
was  no  match  for  the  Con-fed-er-ate  Gen-er-als,  Lee  and 
"  Stone-wall"  Jack-son.  So  he  had  to  put  a  new  man 
at  the  head  of  the  ar-my  in  the  East.  This  man  was 
Gen.  Pope  who  had  done  well  in  the  West. 


106  THE  LIFE  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

Then  came  the  sec-ond  Bull  Run  fight,  Au-gust  29 
and  30,  1862.  The  foe  won.  Lin-coln  found  Pope 
"not  up  to  the  mark,"  as  a  lead-er,  and  so  put  Mc-Clel- 
lan  back  once  more. 

It  was  on  the  1 6th  and  17th  of  Sept.  1862,  that  Mc- 
Clel-lan  and  Lee  fought  at  An -tie-tarn  Creek,  near 
Sharps-burg,  in  Ma-ry-land.  This  was  one  of  the  most 
se-vere  bat-ties  of  the  war.  On  Sept.  18,  Lee  with-drew 
a-cross  the  Po-to-mac,  and  Mc-Clel-lan  slow-ly  went  af- 
ter him. 

The  Pres-i-dent  had  wait-ed  in  hopes  that  a  "  vic- 
lo-ry"  would  come  to  the  ar-my  of  the  East,  ere  he 
made  known  his  plan  of  free-ing  slaves  in  some  of  the 
states.  His  own  words  are,  "  I  had  made  a  sol-emn 
vow  to  God  that  if  Lee  were  driv-en  back  from  Ma-ry- 
land  I  would  crown  the  re-sult  by  a  dec-la-ra-tion  of 
free-dom  to  the  slaves." 

So  when  the  An-tie-tam  fight  came,  and  Lee  and 
troops  were  driv-en  back  from  Ma-ry-land,  it  gave  so 
much  hope  to  the  Un-ion  cause  that  Lin-coln  felt  it  was 
the  time  to  send  forth  the  "  draft "  he  made  two  months 
be-fore.  This  pa-per  said  that  on  the  first  day  of  Jan-u- 
ary,  1863,  all  slaves  in  those  states  which  had   left  the 


THE    LIFE   OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  107 

Un-ion  should  be  free.  The  slaves  in  those  states 
which  had  not  gone  off,  such  as  Mis-sou-ri  and  Ken- 
tuc-ky,  were  not  then  to  be  free. 

It  had  been  thought  by  some  that  harm  would  come 
from  this  pa-per,  but  it  did  not.  It  was  a  wise  move, 
and  a  bold  one,  and  brought  much  good. 

Great  joy  was  felt  at  the  North,  and  fresh  hope  came 
with  the  thought  that  the  war  might  soon  be  at  an  end. 
But  there  were  two  more  years  of  sad,  sad  work,  loss, 
and  death  on  both  sides. 

The  Pres-i-dent  had  found  that  it  would  be  best  for 
Mc-Clel-lan  to  give  up  his  post  "  for  good."  Burn-side 
took  his  place,  but  it  was  soon  seen  that  he  was  too 
rash. 

His  plan  was  to  cross  the  Rap-pa-han-nock  at  Fred- 
er-icks-burg  and  strike  at  the  foe  on  the  heights  back 
of  the  town  on  Dec.  13,  1862.  There  was  great  loss  of 
life  and  no  gain.     The  foe  won. 

Gen.  Hook-er  was  the  next  man  to  take  charge  of 
the  ar-my  in  the  East,  but  no  moves  were  made  till 
May,  '63. 

In  the  mean  time  a  great  deal  was  done  in  the  West. 
Grant  once  more  made  a  move  against  Vicks-burg,  one 


108 


THE  LIFE  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 


of  the  two  strong  points  on  the  Mis-sis-sip-pi  Riv-er 
still  held  by  the  foe.  The  North  had,  at  times,  thought 
Grant  "  slow  "  but  Lin-coln  had  great  trust  in  him,  and 
said,     "  Wait.     Give  him  a  chance." 

Vicks-burg  is  on  the  east  bank  of  the  riv-er.     Grant's 


GUNBOATS    ON    THE    MISSISSIPPI. 


aim  was  to  get  to  his  troops  and  gun-boats  be-low  the 
town,  and  the  plan  he  took  was  to  march  his  men  down 
the  west  bank,  and  let  the  gun-boats  run  past  the 
eight  miles  of  bat-ter-ies. 

It  was  a-bout  the  mid-die  of  A-pril,  1863,  when  the 
gun-boats  passed  the  bat-ter-ies.  The  troops  marched 
down  the  west  bank  of  the  riv-er,  and  then  crossed  in 
boats  to  the  east  side,  at  a  point  where  they  could  reach 
the    foe.       On  the  first  of  May  there  was  a   fight  near 


THE  LIFE   OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  109 


Port  Gib-son  with  the  fore-guard  of  Gen.  Pem-ber- 
ton's  ar-my.  Here  the  foe  soon  had  more  of  the  South- 
ern troops  come  to  help  him,  led  by  Gen.  John-ston. 
Grant  saw  a  chance  to  get  be-tween  these  two  sets  of 
troops,  and  on  May  14,  1863,  he  put  down  John-ston. 
Then  he  beat  Pem-ber-ton  in  two  more  fights  at  Cham- 
pi-on  Hills  and  at  Black  Riv-er.  So  the  foe  had  to 
flee,  for  safe-ty,  to  Vicks-burg,  where  Grant  had  made 
up  his  mind  to  take  him,  af-ter  a  while,  with  all  the  rest 
of  the  foe  he  could  find  in  that  cit-y. 

Then  came  the  Siege  of  Vicks-burg  which  went  on  for 
near-ly  sev-en  weeks.  The  foe  held  out  as  long  as  there 
was  a  crust  of  bread  left.  Grant  said  he  should  stay 
there  till  he  took  the  town. 

These  were  his  words ; 

"  I  can-not  tell  just  when  I  shall  take  the  town,  but 
I  mean  to  stay  till  I  do,  if  it  takes  me  thir-ty  years." 

The  end  came  on  July  4,  1863.  The  foe  sent  up 
white  flags  on  all  their  lines  and  the  men  of  the  South 
filed  out  and  stacked  their  arms  in  front  of  the  Un-ion 
for-ces. 

Grant  rode  in-to  Vicks-burg  at  head  of  Lo-gan's 
corps.      He  was  proud  of  his  troops  and  that  the   right 


110 


THE  LIFE    OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 


FIRST    CHARGE    AT    VICKSBURG. 


had  won.  The  news  flew  fast  o'er  the  land.  Lin-coln 
sent  strong  words  of  thanks  to  Grant,  gave  him  high 
praise,  and  made  him  Ma-jor  Gen-er-al. 

At  the  same  time  that  Grant  was  at  work  on  the 
Vicks-burg  Siege,  Un-ion  troops,  led  by  Gen.  N.  P. 
Banks,  fought  to  get  Port  Hud-son  which  lay  at  the 
south  end  of  the  reb-el  part  of  the  riv-er.  At  last  it 
had  to  yield,  and  on  Ju-ly  9,  1863,  it  hauled  down  its 
flag  of  stars  and  bars.     Then  the  brave  "  boys  in  blue  " 


THE  LIFE   OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  111 

marched  in  and  flung  out  the  star-span-gled  ban-ner 
to  the  breeze.  From  that  time  on  the  great  Mis-sis- 
sip-pi  Riv-er  was  a  safe  road-way  for  all  un-armed  craft 
which  flew  the  stars  and  stripes. 

In  the  East,  in  the  Spring  of '63,  Hoo-ker  fought  the 
"  Chan-cel-lors-ville  Cam-paign  "  and  lost.  Then,  on 
May  6th,  he  re-crossed  the  Rap-pa-han-nock. 

Lee  had  tak-en  his  ar-my  a-cross  the  Po-to-mac  and 
was  in  Penn-syl-va-ni-a. 

Hoo-ker's  place  was  giv-en  to  Gen.  George  G.  Meade. 
The  Un-ion  ar-my  and  the  foe  met  on  the  first  day  of 
July,  1863.  Friends  of  each  side.  North  and  South, 
held  their  breath  with  fear. 

Lee,  who  had  been  so  strong  in  de-fence  was  now  to 
prove,  for  the  last  time,  what  he  could  do  in  at-tack. 
His  plan  to  move  in-to  Penn-syl-va-nia  was  a  good  one, 
but  Jack-son,  who  had  long  been  a  great  help  to  him, 
was  hurt  and  could  not  be  there.      Lee  felt  this  loss. 

June  3,  1863,  Lee  marched  up  the  Val-ley  of  Shen- 
an-do-ah  towards  Cham-bers-burg.  The  Un-ion  ar-my 
too  took  the  same  course,  but  on  the  oth-er,  or  eas-tern, 
side  of  the  Blue  Ridge.  "  Stu-art's  Cav-al-ry"  held  the 
passes  and  this  kept  the  Un-ion   troops  from   know-ing 


112  THE  LIFE   OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

what  went  on  on  the  western  side.  Lee's  ar-my  was  the 
best  of  all  the  foe.  Af-ter  cross-ing  the  Po-to-mac  the 
two  ar-mies  looked  for  each  oth-er.  Lee,  fac-ing  east,  was 
cot.  ing  from  the  west  of  the  town  of  Get-tys-burg,  and 
Meade  was  tak-ing  his  post  on  Cem-e-ter-y  Ridge,  at 
the  south.  It  was  not  thought  that  a  bat-tie,  by  all, 
would  then  be-gin,  but  "  Meade's  Cav-al-ry,"  led  by  Bu- 
ford,  came  up-on  Lee's  front  guard  on  Ju-ly  i,  1863, 
and  they  fought.  The  Un-ion  men  were  forced  back 
and  had  loss-es.  Night  then  came  on,  and  by  that  time 
both  sides,  each  with  about  80,000  men,  were  in  the 
moon-light  up-on  the  ground.  The  troops  were  in  good 
trim  and  of  high  cour-age.  On  the  next  day  the  foe 
car-ried  works  at  both  ends  of  the  Un-ion  line.  The 
third  day  the  Un-ion  ar-my  got  back  the  lost  ground  on 
its  right.  The  foe  then  made  a  fierce  charge  and  broke 
through  the  cen-tre  of  the  Un-ion  ar-my,  but  were  at 
last  put  down  and  sent  back.  The  end  of  the  charge 
was  the  end  of  the  bat-tie  and  pointed  to  the  end  of  the 
war.  In  this  fight  Lee  lost  36,000  men.  With  those 
he  lost  the  first  time  he  made  a  thrust  at  the  North, 
and  these,  90,000  of  some  of  the  best  troops  in  the 
world  laid  down  their  lives  for  the  cause  they  held  dear. 


THE  LIFE   OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 


113 


Meade,  at  this  time,  lost  23,000  men.  The  Un-ion 
was  saved.  Meade  let  Lee  go  slow-ly  a-cross  the  Po- 
to-mac.  One  more  move  was  made  by  Lee  two  or 
three  months  lat-er  in  a  quick  dash  o'er  the  Rap-i-dan, 
with  the  thought  that  he  might  get  a-round  Meade's 
right    flank.       But  Meade   was  too  bright  to   be  thus 


ARMY    WAGON, 


caught.  Then  he  tried  the  same  game  on  Lee  but  with 
no  gain,  and  so  the  "  Cam-paign  of  1863,"  in  the  East, 
came  to  an  end. 

The  great  news  that  the  Un-ion  troops  had  won  at 
Get-tys-burg,  and  that  the  Un-ion  for-ces  had  al-so  won 
in  the  West,  and  that  the  whole  Mis-sis-sip-pi  Riv-er 
was  in  the  hands  of  the  boys  in  blue,  flashed  o'er  the 
wires  with-in  a  few  days  of  each  oth-er. 


114 


THE  LIFE   OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 


Pres-i-dent  Lin-coln's  heart  was  made  glad.  The  sad 
look  left  his  face.  When  some  one  in  a  high  post  at 
Wash-ing-ton  asked  him  if  he  had  not  felt  "  great  anx- 
i-e-ty"  a-bout  the  fate  of  the  Un-ion  cause  at  Get-tys- 
burg,  he  said  he  "Thought  it  would  all  come  out  right." 
Then  came  the  ques-tion,  "  Why  ? "  At  first  Lin-coln 
did  not  speak,  then  he  said : 

"  Be-fore  the  bat-tie  I  went  a-lone  to  my  room  in  the 
White  House  and  prayed  to  Al-migh-ty  God  to  give 
us  the  vic-to-ry.  I  said  to  Him  that  this  was  His  war, 
and  that  if  He  would  stand  by  the  na-tion  now,  I  would 
stand  by  Him  the  rest  of  my  life.  He  gave  us  the  vic- 
to-ry,  and  I  pro-pose  to  keep  my  pledge.  I  rose  from 
my  knees  with  a  feel-ing  of  deep  and  se-rene  con-fi- 
dence  and  had  no  doubt  of  the   re-sult  from  that  hour." 

Get-tys-burg,  Vicks-burg,  and  Port  Hud-son  made  a 
turn-ing  point  in  his-to-ry. 


3> 


4   >4'  &  r  ■> 


THE  LIFE  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  115 


CHAPTER   XII. 

chattanooga,  chickamauga,  lookout  mountain. 
Lincoln's  Gettysburg  speech. 

In  the  West  the  war  was  now  in  two  parts.  The  Un- 
ion troops  had  won  their  first  point,  which  was  to  hold 
the  Mis-sis-sip-pi  Riv-er.  But  there  had  to  be  a  long, 
fierce  fight  ere  they  could  gain  cen-tral  Ten-nes-see  and 
north  Geor-gi-a.  The  foe  led  by  Bragg,  and  the  Un-ion 
troops  by  Ro-se-crans  fought  their  best  but  it  was  not 
till  the  warm  months,  and  the  fall  of  1863  that  Ro-se- 
crans,  at  last,  made  Bragg  fall  back,  bit  by  bit,  un-til 
Chat-ta-noo-ga  was  in  the  hands  of  the  Un-ion  for-ces. 
Then  more  of  the  foe  went  to  help  Bragg,  and  the  great 
fight  of  Chick-a-mau-ga  came  on  Sept.  19  and  20,  1863. 
The  first  day  the  Un-ion  ar-my  won;  but  the  next 
day  the  right  half  of  Ro-se-crans'  ar-my  was  brok-en 
and  fled  to  Chat-ta-noo-ga.  George  H.  Thom-as,  a 
brave  man  and  a  hard  fight-er,  by  great  skill  held  the 
left  wing  a-gainst  charge  af-ter  charge  that  the  foe  made 
up-on  it,  and  gave  Ro-se-crans  time  to  take  such   steps 


116  THE  LIFE   OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

as  would  make  safe  the   Un-ion  men   who  had  fled  to 

Chat-ta-noo-ga. 

Grant  then  had  all  the  troops  west  of  the  mount-ains 

in  his  charge.  He 
gave  Ro-se-crans' 
place  to  Thom-as, 
who  was  called 
"The  Rock  of 
Chick-a-mau-g  a." 
Grant  him-self,  with 
Thom-as  next,  then 
took  com-mand  of 
the  be-sieged  for-ces 
at  Chat-ta-noo-ga. 

Some  of  Bragg's 
men  had  been  sent 

off  to  make  a  strike  at  Burn-side  in  East  Ten-nes-see, 

so  Grant  saw  that  he  had   a  good   chance  to  make  a 

move  on  the  rear  of  Bragg's  ar-my. 

The  line  of  the  foe  was  twelve  miles  long,  'twixt  Mis- 

sion-a-ry  Ridge  on  the  east  and  Look-out  Mount-ain  on 

the  south.     The  last  is  a  height  which  makes  a  sharp 

rise  of  2,000  feet. 


AT    MISSIONARY    RIDGE. 


THE  LIFE  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  117 

Grant's  plan  was  to  have  his  troops  climb  the  two 
heights  and  storm  the  works  that  had  been  built  on 
them.  If  he  could  take  them,  he  would  then  com-mand 
the  val-ley  in  which  Bragg's  troops  lay,  and  could  force 
him  to  give  up  the  siege.  He  gave  Hoo-ker  the  task  of 
mak-ing  a  strike  at  Look-out  Mount-ain  and  Sher-man 
had  his  work  to  do  at  the  Ridge. 

There  was  a  dense  mist  on  the  morn-ing  of  Nov.  23. 
Sher-man  went  to  work  and  got  up-on  the  north  end  of 
the  Ridge,  while  Hoo-ker  did  his  part  on  Look-out 
Mount-ain.  Hoo-ker's  troops  fought  their  way  right  up 
to  the  top  and  when  there  flung  to  the  breeze  the  stars 
and  stripes. 

Grant  stood  on  Or-chard  Knob  and  gave  the  or-der 
for  20,000  men  to  take  a  line  of  earth  works  which  lay 
at  the  base  of  the  Ridge.  This  they  did  and  Grant 
then  saw  that  the  time  was  ripe  for  a  great  move.  He 
gave  the  word  for  a  charge  to  be  made  a-long  the  whole 
line  of  bat-tie. 

The  day  drew  near  its  close.  The  shad-ow  of  Look- 
out Mount-ain  fell  far  a-cross  the  plain.  The  last  rays 
of  the  sun,  ere  it  sank  from  sight,  shone  bright  on  the 
arms  of  the  troops  as  on  they  came. 


118 


THE  LIFE   OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 


j3* 


A     CHARGE    ALL    ALONG    THE    LINE. 


Fierce  was  the  fire  which  struck  them,  but  on  they 
went  up  the  steep  height,  climb,  climb  as  best  they 
could,  with  the  flags  wav-ing  be-yond  them. 

When  the  sun  went  down,  with  it  went  the  hopes  of 
the  foe,  for  they  fled  and  their  own  guns  were  turned 
up-on  them. 

Af-ter  the  bat-tie  of  Chat-ta-noo-ga,  East  Ten-nes-see 
was  in  the  hands  of  Un-ion  troops.  The  troops  of  the 
South  that  had  held  the  field  there,  re-tired  to  guard 
Geor-gia,  Al-a-bam-a,  and  North  and  South  Car-o-li-na. 

The  State  of  Penn-syl-va-ni-a  bought  a  part  of  the 
Get-tys-burg  bat-tie  field  for  a  place  of  bur-i-al  for  the 


THE   LIFE   OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  119 

Un-ion  sol-diers  who  there  had  fought  their  last  fight 
On  Nov.  19,  1863,  that  rest-ing  place  for  the  dead 
was  to  be  "  con-se-cra-ted."  Ed- ward  Ev-e-rett,  of  Mas- 
sa-chu-setts,  was  to  give  the  o-ra-tion,  or  chief  speech  of 
the  day. 

Some  one  told  Pres-i-dent  Lin-coln,  that  he,  too, 
might  be  asked  to  speak.  He  said  he  would  "put  some 
stray  thoughts  to-geth-er,"  and  so,  while  in  the  cars  on 
his  way  from  the  White  House  to  the  bat-tle-field,  he 
took  a  pen-cil  from  his  pock-et,  and  on  bits  of  pa-per 
wrote  the  best  speech  of  his  life  and  one  of  the  great-est 
speech-es  of  the  world. 

Each  word  was  of  use.  There  were  267  words  in  all 
and  they  came  straight  from  Lin-coln's  heart.  Here 
they  are : 

"  Four  score  and  sev-en  years  a-go  our  fa-thers 
brought  forth  on  this  con-ti-nent  a  new  na-tion,  con- 
ceived in  lib-er-ty,  and  ded-i-ca-ted  to  the  prop-o-si-tion 
that  all  men  are  cre-a-ted  e-qual.  Now  we  are  en-gaged 
in  a  great  civ-il  war,  test-ing  wheth-er  that  na-tion  or 
an-y  na-tion  so  con-ceived  and  so  ded-i-ca-ted  can  long 
en-dure.  We  are  met  on  a  great  bat-tle-field  of  that 
war.     We  have  come  to  ded-i-cate   a  por-tion   of  that 


120  THE  LIFE  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

field  as  a  fin-al  rest-ing  place  for  those  who  here  gave 
their  lives  that  that  na-tion  might  live.  It  is  al-to-geth- 
er  fit-ting  and  pro-per  that  we  should  do  this.  But,  in 
a  lar-ger  sense,  we  can-not  ded-i-cate — we  can-not  con- 
se-crate — we  can-not  hal-low  this  ground.  The  brave 
men,  liv-ing  and  dead,  who  strug-gled  here,  have  con-se- 
cra-ted  it  far  a-bove  our  poor  pow-er  to  add  or  de-tract. 
"The  world  will  lit-tle  note,  nor  long  re-mem-ber, 
what  we  say  here ;  but  it  can  nev-er  for-get  what  they 
did  here.  It  is  for  us,  the  liv-ing,  rath-er  to  be  ded-i- 
ca-ted  here  to  the  great  task  re-main-ing  be-fore  us — 
that,  from  these  hon-ored  dead,  we  take  in-creased  de- 
vo-tion  to  that  cause  for  which  they  gave  the  last  full 
meas-ure  of  de-vo-tion ;  that  we  here  high-ly  re-solve 
that  these  dead  shall  not  have  died  in  vain ;  that  this 
na-tion,  un-der  God,  shall  have  a  new  birth  of  free-dom, 
and  that  gov-ern-ment  of  the  peo-ple,  by  the  peo-ple, 
for  the  peo-ple  shall  not  per-ish  from  the  earth." 


THE  LIFE    OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  121 


CHAPTER   XIII. 

GRANT    IN    THE    EAST.     LINCOLN    CHOSEN    FOR    SECOND    TERM- 

Grant  for  his  great  work  in  the  West  was  made  Lieu- 
ten-ant  Gen-er-al,  and  put  in  charge  of  all  the  for-ces  of 
the  Un-ion.  He  came  East,  and  took  the  Ar-my  of 
the  Po-to-mac  in-to  his  strong  safe  hands,  and  Pres-i-dent 
Lin-coln  saw  that  he  would  fight  to  the  end. 

Then  the  Ar-my  of  the  Po-to-mac  un-der  Grant  and 
Meade  made  a  move  toward  Rich-mond.  It  met  Lee  in 
dense  woods  known  as  "  The  Wil-der-ness,"  and  there, 
and  in  and  a-bout  Spott-syl-va-ni-a  Court  House,  fought 
for  16  days.  The  Un-ion  ar-my  lost  37,000  men.  Lee, 
who  led  the  foe,  lost  vast  hordes,  still  he  would  not  give 
up.  Grant  saw  that  he  must  get  near-er  to  Rich-mond 
and  this  he  did  in  a  qui-et  way  by  send-ing  off  a  part  of 
his  ar-my  from  his  right  and  march-ing  it  a-round  to 
the  rear  of  his  oth-er  troops.  Then  he  pushed  it  as  far 
a-head  as  he  could  on  his  left.  Though  "  out-flanked," 
Lee  would  fall  back  in  time  to  be  a-gain  twixt  Grant's 
troops  and  Rich-mond.  With  troops  so  well  matched 
it  was  hard  for  ei-ther  to  win. 


122 


THE  LIFE  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 


On  June  3,  1864,  Grant  and  his  men  were  so  near 
Rich-mond,  at  a  place  called  Cold   Har-bor,   that  the 

Un-ion  for-ces  made  a 
strike  at  the  works  of 
the  foe  a-long  the  whole 
line.  In  one  hours' 
time  near  6,000  Un-ion 
men  met  death. 

When  ten  days  had 
gone  by  a  quick  march 
to  the  left  was  made 
by  Grant's  ar-my  and 
they  all  got  a-cross  the 
James  Riv-er.  They 
tried  to  take  Peters- 
burg so  that  they 
could  cut  off  one  source  of  the  stores  sent  to  the  foe,  but 
they  found  the  works  too  strong  to  be  seized  by  storm. 
Then  the  Un-ion  troops  built  trench-es  close  up  to  the 
foe's  works  and  staid  there  nine  months. 

On  the  21st  of  June,  Pres-i-dent  Lin-coln  rode  out  to 
the  front.  On  his  way  back  he  had  to  pass  some 
black  troops  who  had  fought  well  in  the  first  charge  on 


GENERAL  GRANT. 


THE  LIFE   OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 


123 


Pe-ters-burg,  These  men  had  been  slaves,  and  Lin- 
coln was  the  good  friend  who  had  set  them  free.  They 
crowd-ed  round  him  with  tears  in  their  eyes,  and  gave 
cheers  of  joy.  They  laughed  and  cried,  and  pressed 
up  to  him  to  shake  or  kiss  his  hand,  to  touch  his 
clothes,  or  the  horse  on  which  he  rode.  The  scene 
moved     Mr.    Lin-coln 


to  tears,  and  he  could 
not  trust  him-self  to 
speak. 

There  had  been, 
through  all  the  years 
of  the  war,  fights  on  a 
small  scale  in  the  Val- 
ley of  Vir-gin-ia,  and 
each  side  had  a  chance 
to  win  from  time  to 
time. 

At  last  Gen-er-al 
Sher-i-dan    was  put  in 

F  li  GENERAL   LEE 

charge   of  the   Un-ion 

troops  on  that  line,  but  held  off  from   a  great  fight   till 

Sept.  19,  '64,  when  he  won   at  Win-ches-ter  and   three 


124 


THE  LIFE  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 


LINCOLN    AND    THE    BLACK    TROOPS. 


days  lat-er  at  Fisher's  Hill  a-gainst  the  foe  un-der  Ear- 
ly. Sher-i-dan  took  all  the  stock  from  the  Val-ley  and 
burned  barns  full  of  grain,  so  the  foe  would  not  find 
food  there,  but  still  Ear-ly  sent  a  part  of  his  men  af-ter 
the  Un-ion  troops,  mov-ing  so  that  his  for-ces  would  not 
make  a  noise  in  the  night  on  a  lone-path  till  they  got  to 
a  place  where  the  Un-ion  troops  were  sound  a-sleep. 
The  rest  of  his  ar-my,  Ear-ly  kept  by  him  to  strike  at 
Sher-i-dan's  force  in  front.  The  bat-tie  of  Ce-dar  Creek 
came  then  twixt  these  two  ar-mies.  The  foe  won. 
Sher-i-dan  was  not  there  but  heard  the  guns  and  rode 


THE  LIFE  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 


125 


up  the  Val-ley  full  speed,  and  with  a  shout  to  his  men 
who  had  fled,  "  Come,  boys,  we're  go-ing  back  ! "  turned 
the  tide  and  put  down  the  Ear-ly  troops.  There  were 
but  few  more  fights,  just  there,  for  both  sides  had  to  go 
to  Pe-ters-burg  for  the  last  scenes. 


' '  COME,     BOYS,     WE'RE    GOING    BACK  !  " 

While  the  ar-my  did  its  best  in  war  work,  the  na-vy, 
too,  or  men  of  the  sea,  did  brave  deeds. 

Ad-mir-al  Far-ra-gut,  who  had  done  so  much  good 
work  with  his  fleet  from  the  North  in  the  Spring  of  1 862, 
brought  fame  once  more  to  him-self  in  his  at-tack  on 
Mo-bile  in  Au-gust,  1864.  So  thathemightseeanddi-rect 
his  fleet  of  i-ron-clads  and   ships  of  wood   in  the  best 


126  THE  LIFE  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

way,  Far-ra-gut  went  up  in-to  the  main-top  of  the 
"  Hart-ford,"  and  at  last  took  the  forts  in  Mo-bile  Bay. 
He  closed  the  port,  though  the  town  was  kept  in  the 
hands  of  the  foe   till   the  war  came  to  an  end. 

In  De-cem-ber,  1864,  when  Con-gress  met,  the  doom 
of  the  foe  was  in  sight.  Grant  had  Pe-ters-burg  in  his 
grip,  and  said  he  would  "  see  the  end  of  the  job." 

With  Lee's  ar-my  at  Rich-mond,  the  on-ly  oth-er 
large  force  of  the  foe  was  led  by  John-ston  in  the  south. 
Sher-man  with  a  lar-ger  force  made  a  move  a-gainst  it, 
and  af-ter  much  fight-ing  John-ston  took  his  stand  at 
At-lan-ta.  He  had  fought  with  much  skill,  but  the 
South  failed  to  see  this,  and  put  Gen.  Hood  in  his  place. 
Hood  was  rash,  and  Sher-man  soon  forced  him  to  leave 
At-lan-ta.  From  At-lan-ta,  Sher-man  set  out  on  his 
great  "  March  through  Geor-gi-a,"  burn-ing  At-lan-ta 
when  he  left,  so  that  it  might  not  a-gain  be  a  ref-uge 
for  the  foe. 

In  the  midst  of  all  the  strife,  Lin-coln's  first  term  as 
Chief  came  to  an  end.  It  was  asked  by  some,  "What 
new  man  shall  we  put  in  Lin-coln's  place?"  Names 
came  up,  but  it  was  hard  to  find  a  new  man  who  "  knew 
the    ropes."     Lin-coln,    though    worn   with   toil,  had   a 


THE  LIFE   OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 


SHERMAN  S    FORCKS    LEAVING    ATLANTA. 


great  wish  to  keep  his  post,  for  he  felt  that  he  had  not 
then  done  his  full  work.  In  his  quaint  way  he  said  to 
his  friends  : 

"It  is-n't  safe  to  swap  hor-ses  when  you  are  cross-ing 
a  stream." 

In  No-vem-ber,  1864,    Lin-coln   was  once   more   the 


128 


THE  LIFE    OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 


m 


a 


choice  of  the  peo-ple.       They  told  him  that  it  was  their 
wish  that  he  should  lead  them,  be   their  Chief  for  one 

more  term,  and  take  the 
chair  on  the  fourth  of 
March,  1865. 

When  that  day  came, 
A-bra-ham  Lin-coln 
stood  on  the  por-ti-co  of 
the  cap-i-tol  and  took  the 
oath  of  off-ice.  The 
L  cloud  of  war  which  hung 
o'er  the  first  in-au-gu-ra- 
tion,  was  now  a-bout  to 
leave.  As  the  gloom  went  by,  bright-er  days  came,  and 
the  sun  of  a  new  e-ra  shone  out  up-on  the  land. 

The  words  which  the  Pres-i-dent  said  were  few,  but 
they  will  nev-er  die.  While  Lin-coln's  "  Get-tys-burg 
Speech  "  will  ev-er  be  praised,  far  more  must  these  last 
words  dwell  in  the  hearts  of  men,  for  they  show  the  de- 
vo-tion  and  ten-der  love  of  that  great  soul,  poured  out 
to  bless  his  chil-dren  ere  he  lay  down  to  die. 

The  woes  of  Lee  and  his  troops  grew  too  hard  for 
them  to  bear.     Arms  and  food  which  had  come  to  them 


ON    THE    SKIRMISH    LINE. 


> 

Co 

co 
> 

CO 
CO 


O 


m 
co 


O 

O 


THE   LIFE    OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 


129 


from  the  South  and  oth-er  pla-ces  were  now  cut  off. 
No  more  troops  could  join  them  and  those  who  were 
on  the  ground  were  weak  for  lack  of  food.  The  great 
drama  was  soon  to  close. 

Sher-man's  ar-my  was  in  North  Car-o-li-na.  There 
were,  too,  "  Boys  in  Blue "  in  Char-les-ton  and  Wil- 
ming-ton,  N.  C.  "  Sher-i-dan's  Cav-al-ry"  was  en  route 
from  the  Shen-an-do-ah  to  Pe-ters-burg.  The  last  blow 
must  come  in  a  few  weeks. 

Lee  knew  that  he  and  his  men  of  the  South  must 
hold  Five  Forks  at  all  risks.  They  put  up  strong 
breast  works  and  did  what  they  could  to  hold  the  land 
about  Pe-ters-burg. 

Grant's  force  was 
then  twice  as  large  as 
Lee's.  Do  the  best  he 
might  Lee  found  him- 
self out-num-bered  at  e$ 
each  tack  and  turn.  The 
Un-ion  men  beat  the  **. 
foe  and  took  hordes  of 


WOUNDED    SOLDIERS    LEAVING    THE    BATTLE. 


them  pris-on-ers  at  the 

great  fight  of  Five  Forks  on  A-pril    i,    1865.     While 


130 


THE  LIFE    OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 


this  fight  went  on,  some  of  the  foe's  works  at  Peters- 
burg were  stormed  and  one  by  one  they  fell  in-to  the 
hands  of  Grant's  men.  But  still  Lee,  on  A-pril  2,  when 
night  came  on,  held  the  line  south   of  the  Ap-po-mat- 


CHARGE    AT    FIVE    FORKS. 


tox.      His  men  were  worn  out,  for  their  work  had  been 
hard  and  their  food  scarce. 

As  no  news  had  come  to  Grant  from  Rich-mond, 
he  rode  out  to  a  line  where  he  thought  he  could  get 
news  and  on  his  way  a  note  was  put  in  his  hands  from 
Gen.  Weit-zel.  It  said,  "  Rich-mond  is  ours.  The  foe 
left  in  great  haste  and  have  set  fire  to  the  town." 


THE  LIFE  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 


131 


SOUTHERN    TROOPS    RETREATING    FROM    RICHMOND. 


Then  all  ^  -long  the  line  of  the  Un-ion  troops  came  up 
a  great  cry;  "  Rich-mond  is  ours!   Rich-mond  is  ours!" 

But,  if  Lee  had  left,  the  "  Boys  in  Blue  "  must  make 
haste  to  catch  him.  He  fled  to  the  west  with  his  starved 
and  worn-out  troops,  but  Grant  gave  close  chase  and 
Sher-i-dan  "  hung  on  his  flanks."     Lee  turned  this  way 


132 


2HE  LIFE  OB  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 


Z&r'-r+iZ' 


UNION    CAVALRY    IN    PURSUIT    OF    LEE  S    ARMY. 


and  that,  and  there  were  some  more  fights,  but  at  length 
he  had  to  give  in.  At  a  time  when  Sher-i-dan  had  his 
men  drawn  up,  and  the  word  "  Charge  "  was  al-most  on 
his  lips,  a  white  flag  was  seen.  The  man  who  brought 
it  had  come  from  Lee  who  was  at  Ap-po-mat-tox 
Court  House.  Lee  had  sent  to  ask  that  there  might 
not  be  a  fight  till  he  knew  what  Grant's  terms  of  peace 
were. 

At  last  both  great  chiefs  met  to-geth-er  in  the  small 
town  of  Ap-po-mat-tox  at  a  plain  farm  house. 

They  shook  hands  and  Lee  asked  Grant  to  write  out 
his  terms  and  said  he  would  sign  them.  Grant  drew 
up  the  terms  and  Lee  signed  them  as  he  had  said  he 


THE  LIFE  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  133 

would.    Then  the  two  great  lead-ers  shook  hands  a-gain 
and  both  rode  off.    This  was  on  the  9th  of  A-pril,  1865. 

In  the  south,  John-ston,  who  led  the  foe  there,  could 
make  no  stand  a-lone,  so,  at  the  end  of  1 7  days,  he  gave 
up  to  Gen.  Sher-man.  Small  sets  of  the  foe,  placed 
here  and  there,  al-so  gave  up,  and  the  four  years  of 
blood  came  to  an  end. 

The  ar-mies  of  the  Un-ion  had  put  down  the  "  Great 
Re-bei-lion  "  and  peace  had  come.  So  vast  a  war  had 
ne'er  been  known  in  mod-ern  times,  and  men  more 
brave  than  those  who  fought  on  both  sides  could  not  be 
found  in  any  land. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

RETURN    OF    PEACE  ;     LINCOLN    SHOT  J      HIS    BURIAL 

AT    SPRINGFIELD. 

"  Pres-i-dent  Lin-coln  in  Rich-mond,"  af-ter  the  "  Con- 
fed-er-a-cy"  fell  to  pie-ces,  made  a  scene  such  as  was  ne'er 
be-fore  known  in  all  his-to-ry.  There  was  none  of  the 
pomp  and  show  such   as  a  great  chief  in  oth-er  lands 


134 


THE  LIFE   OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 


would  have  had  who  put  down  a  brave  foe  and  gained 
a  great  cause. 

Lin-coln  was  at  the  "  head-quar-ters  "  of  Gen.   Grant 
at    Cit-y    Point    on    a    small    steam-er,      "The   Riv-er. 
Queen,"  when  he  heard  of  the  fall  of  Rich-mond,   and 
that  a  great  fire  had  laid  low  much  of  that  place.      He 

went    up   the     riv-er 
and  landed  at  a  wharf 


near  Lib-by  Pris-on. 
There  he  found  a 
black  man  to  act  as 

F^f  \  §m(^e  ano^  show  him 

O-  the  way  through    the 

cit-y.     Soon   a  great 

crowd  drew  near  the 

UNION    TROOPS    MARCHING    INTO    RICHMOND.  T)  •        1  .  np  1 

rres-i-dent.  1  he 
Un-ion  sol-diers  greet-ed  him,  so  did  those  who  had 
once  been  bought  and  sold  like  beasts.  Cries  of  thanks 
rent  the  air  from  the  race  he  had  made  free.  They  felt 
God  had  sent  him. 

The  crowd  was  so  dense  that  Ad-mir-al  Por-ter  had 
to  call  sail-ors  from  his  boat  to  march  in  front  and  be- 
hind the  Pres-i-dent,  so  that  a  track  might  be  cleared  for 


THE  LIFE   OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  135 


him  through  the  town.  Lin-coln  did  not  seem  to  think 
of  fear,  and  no  one  raised  a  hand  a-gainst  him  or  spoke 
an  un-kind  word. 

The  Pres-i-dent  went  to  the  house  then  used  by  Gen. 
Weit-zel,  who  was  in  charge  of  the  Un-ion  troops  there 
— the  same  house  in  which  Jef-fer-son  Dav-is  had  lived 
for  months,  and  which  he  had  just  left  in  great  haste. 

Lib-by  Pris-on  was  in  that  town,  and  there  hordes  of 
some  of  the  brav-est  and  best  of  the  men  of  the  North 
had  starved  and  died.  Here,  too,  was  a  pris-on  where 
black  slaves  were  kept.  It  was  the  "  Rich-mond  Mart" 
with  its  cells  and  grates  of  i-ron.  The  end  had  come 
for  the  pris-on,  the  whip,  the  shac-kles,  the  auc-tion- 
block  and  dri-ver. 

In  the  ear-ly  morn  of  the  day  on  which  the  foe's 
troops  had  marched  out  of  Rich-mond,  the  or-der  was 
giv-en  to  burn  the  bridge  o-ver  which  they  passed.  At 
the  same  time,  flames  burst  from  win-dows  and  roofs  of 
tall  build-ings,  and  in  a  few  hours  800  of  them  were 
on  fire. 

The  poor  folks  of  the  town  had  their  arms  full  of 
house-hold  goods,  and  stacks  of  beds,  ta-bles,  and  chairs 
were  piled  up  in  o-pen  pla-ces.  Groups  of  peo-ple  stood 


136 


THE  LIFE  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 


still  in  their  fright,  for  their  hou-ses  were  in  ash-es  and 

they  had  no  food  or  clothes. 

A  great  hush,  at  last,  fell  on  all,  as  the  Pres-i-dent's 

coach  was  driv-en 
to  a  stand  in  the 
"Square."  Then 
Lin-coln  rose,  faced 
the  great  throng, 
and  spread  out  his 
hands  as  a  min-is- 
ter  would  when 
giv-ing  a  bless-ing. 
Not  a  sound  was 
heard  for  more  than 
a  min-ute.  Then 
the  hor-ses  went  on 
and    Lin-coln    was 


PRESIDENT    LINCOLN    AND    HIS   SON    "TAD. 


gone. 


One  more  vis-it  was  made  by  the  Pres-i-dent  to 
Rich-mond.  He  then  had  his  wife  and  his  son  "Tad" 
with  him.  At  that  time  he  talked  with  Judge  Camp- 
bell a-bout  the  terms  he  would  make  with  the  foe.  The 
Judge  had  his  own  i-de-a  of  what  he  would  like.      Mr. 


THE    LIFE  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 


137 


Lin-coln  was  not  of  the  same  mind,  but  said,  "  I  will 
give  you  in  black  and  white  my  on-ly  terms." 

These  were  plain  and  sim-ple.  Lin-coln  was  kind 
but  he  was  firm. 

Af-ter  that  the  Lin-colns  went  to  For-tress  Mon-roe. 


THE    MARCH    OF    UNION    TROOPS    IN    WASHINGTON. 


There,  though  the  Pres-i-dent  was  wea-ry  and  full  of 
care,  he  spent  hours  with  the  sick  and  those  in  pain. 
He  talked  of  the  grand  news,  of  the  Un-ion  saved  by 
the  brave  "  Boys  in  Blue,"  and  of  their  homes  and  dear 
ones  they  would  soon  see. 

But   when   the   Un-ion   troops  were  on    their   way 
North,  a  few  weeks  lat-er,  May  23,  1865,  and  65,000  of 


138  THE  LIFE  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

them  in  full  strength  and  health  marched  in  di-vis-ions, 
in  close  lines,  round  the  cap-i-tol  at  Wash-ing-ton, 
A-bra-ham  Lin-coln,  the  "  well  be-loved,"  was  not  there 
to  see  them.  His  work  was  done.  He  had  gone  to 
his  Re-ward. 

On  Good  Fri-day,  A-pril  14,  1865,  it  was  four  years 
from  the  "  Sur-ren-der  of  Fort  Sum-ter."  Ma-jor  An- 
der-son  had,  then,  when  the  foe's  guns  struck  the  fort, 
hauled  down  the  Stars  and  Stripes,  and  with  great  care, 
put  the  dear  flag  a-way  to  keep  for  a  glad  day  which 
should  come,  and  a  large  throng  of  folks  from  the  North 
had  come  down  to  Port  Roy-al  and  Charles-ton  to 
raise,  with  words  of  praise  and  pray-er,  o'er  the  ruins 
of  Sum-ter,  that  same  Flag  of  the  Free  in  all  its 
beau-ty. 

Words  were  read  from  the  Bi-ble,  and  all  there  who 
could  sing,  joined  in  a  hymn.  Then  the  Star  Span-gled 
Ban-ner  was  flung  to  the  breeze  by  Gen.  Rob-ert 
An-der-son.  The  pa-tri-ot,  Hen-ry  Ward  Bee-cher, 
gave  at  that  time  one  of  his  great  o-ra-tions.  All  hearts 
were  thrilled. 

The  day  was  a  glad  one  at  the  White  House.      The 


THE  LIFE  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  139 

Pres-i-dent's  son,  Capt.  Rob-ert  Lin-coln,  of  Grant's 
staff,  came  home  that  morn,  and  told  the  tale  of  the  last 
scene  at  Ap-po-mat-tox. 

The  fam-i-ly  took  break-fast  and  then  the  Pres-i-dent 
spent  an  hour  with  Mr.  Col-fax,  the  Speak-er  of  the 
House.  Grant  came  in  and  all  were  glad  to  see  him. 
At  1 1  A.  M.  the  Cab-i-net  met. 

There  were  many  themes  to  speak  of  at  that  time, 
such  as  how  to  bring  back  the  States  which  had  left  the 
Un-ion  and  what  to  do  with  those  who  led  the  re-volt. 

In  these  first  mo-ments  which  came  af-ter  the  long 
four  years  of  dark-ness,  Lin-coln  thought  that  the  way 
to  win  the  heart  of  the  South  was  to  be  kind,  and  trust 
to  their  hon-or  to  stand  by  what  the  test  of  war  had 
done.  Of  course  they  had  been  in  the  wrong  and  had 
lost  their  all,  but,  as  broth-ers,  the  Pres-i-dent  felt  that  it 
was  as  much  to  the  in-ter-est  of  the  North  as  it  was  to 
that  of  the  South  to  take  all  means  to  heal  wounds  and 
lead  and  help  the  weak  till  strength  came  to  them  again. 

It  was  but  a  few  nights  be-fore,  on  A-pril  11,  that 
the  Pres-i-dent  said  words  of  this  sort  to  the  crowds 
which  stormed  the  White  House.  In  all  the  land, 
where  true  hearts  beat  for  the   Un-ion,  there  was  joy. 


140  THE  LIFE  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

Bells  rang,  guns  roared,  and  thanks  went  up  to  God  for 
the  great  work  He  had  done. 

Lin-coln  stood  at  the  cen-tral  win-dow  of  the  White 
House  and  made  his  last  pub-lie  speech.  It  be-gan 
with  these  words: 

"  We  meet  this  e-ven-ing,  not  in  sor-row,  but  in  glad- 
ness of  heart." 

Then  he  went  on  to  tell  the  peo-ple  what  he  hoped 
to  do  for  those  who  had  lost.  He  said  that  his  Cabi- 
net was  a-bout  to  meet,  and  the  mem-bers  of  it  would, 
no  doubt,  join  with  him  in  plans  to  help  the  South  and 
bring  a-bout  a  spir-it  of  true  peace  in  the  land. 

There  were  some  folks  in  the  South  at  that  time, 
on-ly  a  small  knot  oi  them  no  doubt,  who  thought  Presi- 
dent Lin-coJn  was  their  arch  foe.  They  bound  them- 
selves to-gether  to  do  him  and  some  of  his  best  men  all 
the  harm  they  could. 

It  was  on  the  night  of  A-pril  14,  1865,  af-ter  the 
meet-ing  of  the  Cab-i-net  in  the  morn-ing,  that  the 
Pres-i-dent,  with  his  wife  and  two  young  friends,  went 
to  see  a  play.  Mr.  Lin-coln  felt  wea-ry  and  would 
have  liked  to  stay  at  home.  He  had  been  out  to  drive 
that  af-ter-noon  with  his  wife,  and  to  the  throngs  of  folks 


THE  LIFE  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  141 

who  saw  and  greet-ed  him  then  he  had  bowed,  smiled, 
and,  here  and  there,  said  a  kind  word. 

But  it  was  not  for  him  to  rest  at  home  that  night. 
He  had  giv-en  his  word  that  he  would  go  to  Ford's 
The-a-tre.  Gen.  and  Mrs.  Grant  hoped  to  join  the 
Lin-colns  in  their  box,  but  at  the  last  mo-ment  they 
had  to  leave  town. 

The  thought  of  see-ing  two  men  so  great  as  Lin-coln 
and  Grant  to-geth-er  on  that  night  drew  a  vast  throng 
to  Ford's.  Cheer  af-ter  cheer  went  up  as  all  rose  when 
the  Pres-i-dent  came  in.  The  band  played  "  Hail  to 
the  Chief,"  and  all  hearts  were  glad.  The  Pres-i-dent 
bowed  and  took  his  seat,  smil-ing  as  the  first  pleas-ing 
act  was  played. 

Then,  just  as  the  cur-tain  rose  on  the  sec-ond  scene 
of  the  last  act,  the  sound  of  a  pis-tol's  re-port  fell  on  the 
air.  At  first  it  was  thought  to  have  been  part  of  the 
play ;  then  a  man  was  seen  to  leap  from  the  Pres-i- 
dent's  box  and  fall  down  up-on  the  stage,  with  a  knife 
in  his  hand,  call-ing  out  the  Lat-in  words  "  Sic  sem-per 
ty-ran-nis,"  which  mean    "  Thus  al-ways  to  ty-rants." 

Some  one  shout-ed  "He  has  shot  the  Pres-i-dent — !" 
Friends    flew   to   the  box  and  three  ar-my    sur-geons 


142 


THE  LIFE   OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 


made  their  way  through  the  crowd  and  helped  take  the 
great  and  good  man,  who  now  was  near  his  end,  out  to 
a  small  house  a-cross  the  street. 


ABRAHAM    LINCOLN    AS    HE    LOOKED    IN    1865, 


When  dawn  came  and  lamps  grew  dim,  A-bra-ham 
Lin-coln's  pulse  be-gan  to  fail.  Soon  a  calm  look  of 
peace  came  up-on  his  worn  face  and  he  was  gone. 

The  bad  man  who  shot   Lin-coln  was  one  of  that 


THE  LIFE  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  143 

knot  of  folks  who  had  sworn  to  do  him,  and  some  of 
his  Cab-i-net,  harm.  They  said  that  by  so  do-ing  they 
would  "  a-venge  the  South."  Oth-er  good  men  be-sides 
the  Pres-i-dent  were  struck  that  night,  but  the  Presi- 
dent, a-lone,  met  his  death  wound. 

Those  who  had  made  the  plot  to  do  that  foul  deed 
were  soon  caught  and  put  to  death. 

As  the  news  went  forth  of  the  tra-gic  death  of  A-bra- 
ham  Lin-coln  the  land  stood  a-ghast  with  awe.  Bells 
tolled,  work  stopped,  and  grief  filled  all  hearts. 

As  the  fun-er-al  pro-ces-sion  moved  from  the  White 
House  to  the  church,  it  was  seen  that  the  es-cort  was  a 
reg-i-ment  of  black  men,  whose  free-dom  from  sla-ver-y 
had  come  from  him  whose  voice  and  hand  were  now 
stilled  by  death. 

The  State  of  Il-li-nois  said  the  last  rest-ing  place  of 
A-bra-ham  Lin-coln  must  be  on  that  soil.  Then  a 
group  of  men  in  high  pla-ces,  Ad-mir-als  of  the  Na-vy 
Gen-er-als  of  the  Ar-my,  with  States-men  and  oth-ers 
made  a  guard  of  hon-or,  and  went  on  that  long  jour-ney 
to  the  tomb  with  the  pre-cious  dust,  stop-ping  in  man-y 
cit-ies  that  peo-ple  might  look  once  more  on  the  dead 
form  of  the  man  who  led  all  oth-er  men. 


144  THE  LIFE   OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

On  May  14,  1865,  the  great  Cap-tain,  his  life  work 
done,  was  laid  to  rest  in  Oak  Ridge  Cem-e-te-ry, 
Spring-field,  Il-li-nois. 

The  ser-vice  was  plain.  There  was  a  hymn,  a  pray- 
er, a  few  words,  then  the  read-ing  of  Lin-coln's  sec-ond 
in-au-gu-ral  ad-dress. 

Notes  of  sym-pa-thy  came  to  the  U-ni-ted  States  from 
rul-ers  of  oth-er  lands.  It  seemed  as  if  all  the  world  laid 
wreaths  up-on  the  bier  of  A-bra-ham  Lin-coln. 

"  Rest  to  the  un-crowned  king  who  toil-ing  brought 

His  bleed-ing  coun-try  through  a  dread-ful  reign : 
Who,  liv-ing,  earned  the  world's  re-ver-ing  thought, 
And  dy-ing,  leaves  his  name  with-out  a  stain." 


